World Bunkering >Articles > Environment > Can Ecospec solve the CO2 problem?

Chew Hwee Hong

Just as delegates to IMO’s Marine Environment Protection committee meeting in London in mid-June were in their fourth day of toiling over proposals to enable shipping to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a Singapore firm made a presentation at the UN agency’s headquarters on a development that could change everything. But can Ecospec solve the CO2 problem?

Ecospec’s managing director and founder Chew Hwee Hong addressed a packed house when describing his CSNOx system, which could potentially not only solve the industry’s problems with SOx and NOx but also holds the promise of enabling shipping to meet the increasing pressure to cut emissions of greenhouse gas CO2. The presentation was an opportunity to put some hard facts in front of the shipping community. Crucially, classification society ABS, acting on behalf of the Singapore government, verified that this new type of emissions scrubber had achieved significant results in reducing emissions, including CO2, when tested on a shore-based rig.

The levels of CO2 removal verified by ABS were not as high as those reported from an initial test on Tanker Pacific tanker Coral Sea last December, when over 74% of CO2 was removed, but still between about 30% and 55% was taken out of the emissions stream. Given that there is no other system that can remove any CO2 at all from the exhausts of marine power plants, even 30% is impressive.

I caught up with Mr Chew after the presentation and the lunch which his company had hosted. It was quite a long time afterwards because he was much in demand as regulators and shipping industry representatives alike tried to talk to him. However, despite Ecospec essentially claiming that they can more or less solve the greenhouse gas issue for the shipping industry, and possibly in many cases ashore too, there was absolutely no other media interest other than me.

I asked Mr Chew why he thought that was the case. Smiling, he said he thought that it was because of the shipping industry’s low profile.

He was clearly just coming to terms with being at the centre of attention and also with the degree of scepticism that his new system was facing. And it must be said that there was still a great deal of scepticism about Ecospsec’s claims within the industry. In fact in many quarters there’s outright disbelief. Why? Well, partly because if something looks too good to be true it usually is just that.

Another factor though is that some at least in the industry question the way the system has been developed and tested. Why wasn’t the scientific theory peer-reviewed? Why wasn’t the first installation monitored by independent scrutineers? I put this to Mr Chew. Another smile. “We didn’t set out to to do anything that would be so high profile. It was just an industrial product for the marine industry. I had already developed the Ultra-Low Frequency Electrolysis System (ULFELS) for treating liquids. It is already being used successfully to clean cooling water in about 40 onshore power plants. It is also being used to improve the combustion qualities of fuel.

“In the middle of last year we decided to see if we could do something about emissions from ships. We found it worked in the lab and so we approached Tanker Pacific to test an installation at sea. Nobody had anticipated just how well it would perform. We didn’t think about independent verification then because we just wanted to see if it would work. Initially we just focused on the IMO requirements to deal with SOx and NOx. But we discovered that the system removed a large percentage of CO2 as well.

“We started to realise just how significant the project was when we announced the results of the tanker trials. We were urged to build a test rig onshore and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) brought in ABS to monitor the results.

“What surprised us, though,” he continued, “was that officials from several government departments, and not just the MPA, came to witness the results. That told us that the implications of what we are doing could be very big.”

The next step, said Mr Chew, would be further sea trials later this year on another tanker. This time the equipment’s operation will be closely monitored by ABS. The intention is that the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will issue type approval as an SOx scrubber after successful completion of these trials.

He was confident that the results would be much better than those achieved on the onshore test rig. “I am confident we will see the SOx removal up in the high 90% and NOx removal of over 50%, while the process should also take out over 70% of CO2.”

Mr Chew was also very confident that his CSNOx system would be a commercial success. Understandably he did not want to quote exact prices but said that the costs of putting the installation on board would be comparable with other scrubbers that have been developed just to remove SOx.

Regarding the system’s environmental impact Mr Chew was adamant that there are no adverse effects. The water coming out of the system had calcium carbonate precipitates in it which could be removed by a cyclone separator to meet IMO requirement for ballast water discharges.

He added that the rig being fitted to the tanker for the upcoming trials is the full production version and that other units are already under construction for a number of owners who have already committed to using this technology. He expected something like 30 onboard installations to be operating within a year.

While Ecospec and its scrubber may seem to the global shipping industry to have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Mr Chew does have a solid track record in Singapore. He actually started his career by training to be a marine engineer and did one year at sea as a cadet. He graduated with a Diploma in Marine Engineering from Singapore Polytechnic in 1975 and obtained his Chartered Marine Engineer in 1978. He then spent two years working as the manager for Repair Division in Singapore Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd till 1979 when he joined corrosion control company DIMET. In 1986, he became the first Chairman of the Corrosion Association in Singapore. Then he quit and ran a gems business until 2001 when he established Ecospec to specialise in non-chemical water and oil treatment technology. It now has more than 10 technology patents filed or granted.

Mr Chew stresses that his main focus is on the marine sector but increasingly, he said, people are realising that the CSNOx system has potentia to cut CO2 emissions from land-based plants. He said he has been asked to present the system at the Nordic Climate Solutions conference which is seen as a prelude to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen. The prospect clearly excited him, though that will be yet another step into the limelight.

Somehow, I think the next time I try to interview Mr Chew I may have to join a queue.