Expansion Joints for Ships Scrubbers Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems

The Maritime Industry is in the final run up to the implementation of the new and stricter regulation of sulphur emissions. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) Annex VI sulphur regulation called for a 0.1% sulphur limit in Emission Control Areas (ECA) from 2015 and a worldwide 0.5% limit will be introduced in 2020. Current ECA's include the Baltic Sea, North Sea, English Channel, US and Canadian coasts and inland waters, as well as parts of the Caribbean Sea.  A worldwide limit of 0.5% will be implemented by 2020.

Time is running out for ship owners to decide on how they will meet these emission regulations and there are only three options to meet the regulations: use the more expensive distillate fuel with 0.1/0.5% sulfur content, convert to new fuel types (e.g. LNG) or continue operation on the heavy fuel oil (HFO) which most existing vessels are designed for, and install a Scrubber (Exhaust Gas Cleaning System) to remove 98% of the sulfur from the exhaust gas.

Scrubber technology has proven effective and commercially viable. 

Scrubbing is an after-treatment method, which reduces the SOx in ship emission by washing it out of the exhaust gas.   

To avoid damages in the scrubber, in equipment and in the installation caused by the possible vibrations and movements, expansion joints need to be installed and MACOGA expansion joints are the best solution for this application.

MACOGA designs, manufactures and supplies custom made Expansion Joints for all type of different scrubbers.  In most cases, expansion joints are single MFA & MFG Series or double bellows universal untied expansion joints MFD Series.