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Marine SCR

Marine SCR

a proven and viable technology

Marine SCR – Cost-benefit analysis

IACCSEA has developed a new cost calculation tool for marine SCR to grant some insight into the costs and benefits of installing and operating Tier III compliant SCR technology on-board shipping vessels with two and four-stroke engines.

The major costs of SCR will depend on engine operation and on the time spent in an Emission Control Area (NOX ECA). Fixed costs include initial capital and installation costs for the equipment. The major operational costs are those of the reducing agent (e.g. urea). The calculation tool recognises that any fuel penalties which arise due to pressure drop across the SCR system are offset because a fuel optimised engine with an SCR system allows for a fuel efficiency benefit. In other words – fuel savings can dramatically reduce the cost of SCR technology, and can help reduce climate change inducing CO2 emissions. It is worth noting that the model incorporates some scaling down of costs over the lifetime of the vessel, as it assumes economies of scale.

For illustrative purposes, we have produced two examples of SCR costs from the model:

1) 10MW engine, powering a vessel of 20,000 DWT that spends 1500 hours p.a. in a NECA

  • The capital expenditure cost (including system installation) will be of the order of $500k.
  • The largest operational costs (AUS40 urea) required to meet IMO III (from an IMO I baseline NOx level) would be of the order of $950k over the 25 year lifetime of the vessel.
  • During the vessel lifetime of 25 years the catalyst recharge cost will be of the order of $450k and the system maintenance cost some $150k.
  • Whilst a fuel penalty due to back pressure caused by the SCR equipment may be of the order of $175k, an efficiency gain of 2% could lead to fuel savings of the order of $425k.
  • All this considered means a total SCR cost of some $2.25m and a benefit of $425k.
  • This equates to a total cost of ownership of the order of $1.8m over the lifetime of the vessel, or about $75k p.a.

2) 10MW engine, powering a vessel of 20,000 DWT that spends 8000 hours p.a. (the whole year) in a NECA

  • The capital expenditure cost (including system installation) will be of the order of $500k.
  • The largest operational costs (AUS40 urea) required to meet IMO III (from an IMO I baseline NOx level) would be of the order of $4.95mover the 25 year lifetime of the vessel.
  • During the vessel lifetime of 25 years the catalyst recharge cost will be of the order of $1.05m and the system maintenance cost some $150k.
  • Whilst a fuel penalty due to back pressure caused by the SCR equipment may be of the order of $900k, an efficiency gain of 2% could lead to fuel savings of the order of $2.25m.
  • All this considered means a total SCR cost of some $7.55m and a benefit of $2.25m.
  • This equates to a total cost of ownership of the order of $5.3m over the lifetime of the vessel, or about $225k p.a

A summary of assumptions and considerations used in the model can be found here. We also encourage you to read more about the technical and operational capabilities of SCR.