#* ･ﾟ dialogue ┊ america nox.

[satoshi-mochida]

Gematsu recently had the chance to chat with Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo regarding the upcoming The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki, the PlayStation 4 versions of The Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki and The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki, Falcom’s expanding presence in the west, and more. Kondo also confirmed that Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is being prepared for release in the west.

Get the full interview below, with questions by Kirsten Miller.

—When did the planning for The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki‘s scenario begin?

Toshihiro Kondo: “We started thinking about it little by little during the development of Trails of Cold Steel IV. As we started to think about the next installment in the Trails series, Hajimari no Kiseki took shape from the desire to make a game in which Crossbell—the setting of Zero no Kiseki—has achieved independence.”

—Hajimari no Kiseki is looking to be similar to The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd. Is this being seen as an opportunity to bring in content that may have been cut from it, or is the game going to focus primarily on content based on topics that have come up in more recent titles?

Kondo: “While this is certainly a fan service aspect, the volume of the main story is quite hefty compared to the 3rd. The amount of text in the main scenario for Hajimari no Kiseki is about 80 percent of Trails of Cold Steel IV, so rather than identical to the 3rd, we want you to think of it as something more like ‘a new title with the 3rd-like components.’ New characters that are planned to appear in future titles in the Trails series will also debut in Hajimari no Kiseki.”

—We’ve heard that the in-game book series “3 and 9” will have ties to Hajimari no Kiseki. Are there other books in the Trails series that players should brush up on before Hajimari no Kiseki releases?

Kondo: “While you definitely want to go over ‘3 and 9,’ you may also want to review ‘Carnelia.'”

—It sounds like Hajimari no Kiseki is going to have a monster-sized cast. What has coordination been like with a cast this large, both in terms of game development and in terms of planning with voice actors?

Kondo: “With the many characters that have already appeared in the series, casting didn’t present much in the way of issues. However, working the characters into the script was difficult. Since over 50 characters can join the party, there is a very large number of characters at any rate. By the way, the dialogue between party members after a linked battle victory changes depending on the members, and quite a few specific member-only dialogue is also being prepared. We’re doing it all with both stress and enjoyment, so please look forward to it.”

—The series is expected to move eastward to Calvard and beyond after Hajimari no Kiseki, but will some of the currently unseen regions in the northwest, such as Jurai, North Ambria, and Remiferia be left to side or parallel content as seen in The Legend of Heroes: Akatsuki no Kiseki?

Kondo: “We’ve not yet decided. Since the stage is set to extend to the east of the continent, many new areas will be introduced. We’ll figure out how to depict and handle each in time, but we think an Akatsuki-like approach is interesting and something to think about in the future.”

—Falcom games are notorious for their delayed releases in the west. Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki, for example, never made it out in English. With the PlayStation 4 versions on the way, are there any plans to release those titles in the west? How about Ys IX: Monstrum Nox?

Kondo: “I very much regret that we were unable to release Zero and Ao [in the west]. I think that releasing on PlayStation 4 will lead to an opportunity to release these games in North America and Europe. As for Ys IX, preparations are currently underway for release [in the west].”

—With the release of Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki for PlayStation 4, the Trails in the Sky series will be the only games in the mainline Trails series not playable on PlayStation 4. Given that they were re-released for PlayStation 3, do you plan on making these titles available for PlayStation 4 as well? Is there any hope of playing the PSP-only Nayuta no Kiseki on a modern console?

Kondo: “Both users who own modern consoles and platform holders often request Trails in the Sky, so I have some homework to do. Personally, I’d like to recreate everything in 3D. Nayuta‘s gameplay is also extremely well received, so I think it would be a waste to bury it as a PSP-only title.”

—During the shareholder meeting in December, you brought up working on an in-house game engine. What was behind the decision to make a new engine entirely instead of using something like Unreal Engine 4?

Kondo: “We considered Unreal Engine as an option at first. For the Trails of Cold Steel series, we used an external engine, and it was good enough when we just started working on the series, but as development and the series advanced, there were some incompatibilities with our game plan. For example, in the Trails of Cold Steel series, a large number of unique models are displayed during events, but the engine isn’t suitable for that sort of thing. The staff proposed that, if we move forward on that condition in the future, we would be better off with our own engine. Each [engine route] comes with its own benefits and inconveniences, I don’t think it’s a discussion of which one is superior.”

—The staff interview page on Falcom’s official website has a new sound creator listed on it that has joined the company in 2019. Have we heard any of the music he’s been involved with in any of the company’s releases yet?

Kondo: “A good observation, but his work has yet to show up.”

—Fans of Falcom games have been growing immensely in the west in the past few years. What kind of effort has there been to get the feedback of English-speaking fans, and how much has this growing audience impacted business decisions within the company?

Kondo: “I have actually had more opportunities to exchange information with distributors, media, and users in North America and Europe over the past few years. I’m happily surprised because we haven’t had these opportunities in the past. These days, sales in North America and Europe are extremely important to Falcom, and are often brought up on the agenda when discussing possible title selection and content. I think it’s a very good thing.”

—Before we go, is there anything else you would like to say to our audience or to fans of Falcom games in the west?

Kondo: “Thank you for your interest in Nihon Falcom games. Falcom will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year. Falcom has been carefully crafting game content for 40 years, and we believe that’s what has led us to today. You all may have only learned about our content recently, but we want to keep delivering carefully crafted game content as we always have been in the future, so we hope you’re in it with us for the long run.”

—Thank you for your time, Mr. Kondo!

The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki is due out for PlayStation 4 this summer in Japan. The Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki and The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki are due out for PlayStation 4 on April 23 and May 28, respectively. Ys IX: Monstrum Nox launched for PlayStation 4 in November 2019.

#Ys IX #Hajimari no Kiseki #Ao no Kiseki #Zero no Kiseki #Toshihiro Kondo #Gematsu

[writemarcus]

Black LGBTQ+ playwrights and musical-theater artists you need to know

These artists are producing amazing, timely work.

By Marcus Scott Posted: Friday July 24 2020, 4:56pm

Marcus Scott is a New York City–based playwright, musical writer, opera librettist and journalist. He has contributed to Elle, Essence, Out, American Theatre, Uptown, Trace, Madame Noire and Playbill, among other publications. Follow Marcus: Instagram, Twitter

We’re in the chrysalis of a new age of theatrical storytelling, and Black queer voices have been at the center of this transformation. Stepping out of the margins of society to push against the status quo, Black LGBTQ+ artists  have been actively engaged in fighting anti-blackness, racial disparities, disenfranchisement, homophobia and transphobia.

The success of Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play, Donja R. Love’s one in two and Jordan E. Cooper’s Ain’t No Mo’—not to mention Michael R. Jackson’s tour de force, the Pulitzer Prize–winning metamusical A Strange Loop—made that phenomenon especially visible last season. But these artists are far from alone. Because the intersection of queerness and Blackness is complex—with various gender expressions, sexual identifiers and communities taking shape in different spaces—Black LGBTQ+ artists are anything but a monolith. George C. Wolfe, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Robert O’Hara, Harrison David Rivers, Staceyann Chin, Colman Domingo, Tracey Scott Wilson, Tanya Barfield, Marcus Gardley and Daniel Alexander Jones are just some of the many Black queer writers who have already made marks.

With New York stages dark for the foreseeable future, we can’t know when we will be able to see live works by these artists again. It is likely, however, that they will continue to play major roles in the direction American theater will take in the post-quarantine era—along with many creators who are still flying mostly under the radar. Here are just a few of the Black queer artists you may not have encountered yet: vital new voices that are speaking to the Zeitgeist and turning up the volume.

Christina Anderson A protégé of Paula Vogel’s, Christina Anderson has presented work at the Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Penumbra Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons and other theaters around the U.S. and Canada. She has degrees from the Yale School of Drama and Brown University, and  is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and Epic Theatre Ensemble; she has received the inaugural Harper Lee Award for Playwriting and three Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominations, among other honors. Works include: How To Catch Creation (2019), Blacktop Sky (2013), Inked Baby (2009) Follow Christina: Website

Aziza Barnes Award-winning poet Aziza Barnes moved into playwriting with one of the great sex comedies of the 2010s: BLKS, which premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2017 before it played at MCC Theatre in 2019 (where it earned a Lucille Lortel Award nomination). The NYU grad’s play about three twentysomethings probed the challenges and choices of Millennials with pathos and zest that hasn’t been seen since Kenneth Lonergan’s Gen X love/hate letter This Is Our Youth. Barnes is the author of the full-length collection of poems the blind pig and i be but i ain’t, which won a Pamet River Prize. Works include: BLKS (2017) Follow Aziza: Twitter

Troy Anthony Burton Fusing a mélange of quiet storm ‘90s-era Babyface R&B, ‘60s-style funk-soul and urban contemporary gospel, composer Troy Anthony has had a meteoric rise in musical theater in the past three years, receiving commissions and residencies from the Shed, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company and the Civilians. When Anthony is not crafting ditties of his own, he is an active performer who has participated in the Public Theater’s Public Works and Shakespeare In the Park. Works include: The River Is Me (2017), The Dark Girl Chronicles (in progress) Follow Troy: Instagram

Timothy DuWhite Addressing controversial issues such as HIV, state-sanctioned violence and structural anti-blackness, poet and performance artist Timothy DuWhite unnerves audiences with a hip-hop driven gonzo style. DuWhite’s raison d’être is to shock and enrage, and his provocative Neptune was, along with Donja R. Love’s one in two, one of the first plays by an openly black queer writer to address HIV openly and frankly.  He has worked with the United Nations/UNICEF, the Apollo Theater, Dixon Place and La MaMa. Works include: Neptune (2018) Follow Timothy: Instagram

Jirèh Breon Holder Raised in Memphis and educated at Morehouse College, Jirèh Breon Holder solidified his voice at the Yale School of Drama under the direction of Sarah Ruhl. He has received the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, among other honors. His play Too Heavy for Your Pocket premiered at Roundabout Underground and has since been produced in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Des Moines and Houston; his next play, ...What The End Will Be, is slated to debut at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Works include: Too Heavy for Your Pocket (2017), What The End Will Be (2020) Follow Jirèh: Twitter

C.A. Johnson Born in Louisiana, rising star C.A. Johnson writes with a southern hospitality and homespun charm that washes over audiences like a breath of fresh air. Making a debut at MCC Theater with her coming of age romcom All the Natalie Portmans, she drew praise for empathic take on a black queer teenage womanchild with Hollywood dreams. A core writer at the Playwrights Center, she has had fellowships with the Dramatists Guild Fellow, Page 73, the Lark and the Sundance Theatre Lab. Works include: All the Natalie Portmans (2020) Follow C.A.: Twitter

Johnny G. Lloyd A New York-based playwright and producer, Johnny G. Lloyd has seen his work produced and developed at the Tank, 59E59, the Corkscrew Festival, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and more. A member of the 2019-2020 Liberation Theatre Company’s Writing Residency, this Columbia University graduate is also a producing director of InVersion Theatre. Works include: The Problem With Magic, Is (2020), Or, An Astronaut Play (2019), Patience (2018) Follow Johnny: Instagram

Patricia Ione Lloyd In her luminous 2018 breakthrough Eve’s Song at the Public Theater, Patricia Ione Lloyd offered a meditation on the violence against black women in America that is often overlooked onstage. With a style saturated in both humor and melancholy and a poetic lyricism that evokes Ntozake Shange’s, the former Tow Playwright in Residence has earned fellowships at New Georges, the Dramatist Guild, Playwrights Realm, New York Theater Workshop and Sundance. Works include: Eve’s Song (2018) Follow Patricia: Instagram

Maia Matsushita The half-Black, half-Japanese educator and playwright Maia Matsushita has sounded a silent alarm in downtown theater with an array of slow-burn, naturalistic coming-of-age dramas. She was a member of The Fire This Time’s 2017-18 New Works Lab and part of its inaugural Writers Group, and her work has been seen at Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Playwright Playground and the National Black Theatre’s Keeping Soul Alive Reading Series. Works include: House of Sticks (2019), White Mountains (2018) Follow Maia: Instagram

Daaimah Mubashshir When Daaimah Mubashshir’s kitchen-sink dramedy Room Enough (For Us All) debuted at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in 2019, the prolific writer began a dialogue around the contemporary African-American Muslim experience and black queer expression that made her a significant storyteller to watch. She is a core writer at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis as well as a member of Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group, and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. Her short-play collection The Immeasurable Want of Light was published in 2018. Works include: Room Enough (For Us All) (2019) Follow Daaimah: Twitter

Jonathan Norton Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Jonathan Norton is a delightfully zany playwright who subverts notions of post-blackness by underlining America’s obscure historical atrocities with bloody red slashes. The stories he tells carry a profound horror, often viewed through the eyes of black children and young adults. Norton’s work has been produced or developed by companies including the Actors Theatre of Louisville (at the 44th Humana Festival), PlayPenn and InterAct Theatre Company. He is the Playwright in Residence at Dallas Theater Center. Works include: Mississippi Goddamn (2015), My Tidy List of Terrors (2013), penny candy (2019) Follow Jonathan: Website

AriDy Nox Cooking up piping hot gumbos of speculative fiction, transhumanism and radical womanist expression, AriDy Nox is a rising star with a larger-than-life vision. The Spelman alum earned an MFA from NYU TIsch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and has been a staple of various theaters such as Town Stages. A member of the inaugural 2019 cohort of the Musical Theatre Factory Makers residency, they recently joined the Public Theater’s 2020-2022 Emerging Writers Group cohort. Works include: Metropolis (in progress), Project Tiresias (2018) Follow AriDy: Instagram

Akin Salawu Akin Salawu’s nonlinear, hyperkinetic work combines heart-pounding suspense chills with Tarantino-esque thrills while excavating Black trauma and Pan-African history in America. With over two decades of experience as a writer, director and editor, the prize-winning playwright is a two-time Tribeca All Access Winner and a member of both the Public Theater’s Emerging Writers Group and Ars Nova’s Uncharted Musical Theater residency. A graduate of Stanford, he is a founder of the Tank’s LIT Council, a theater development center for male-identifying persons of color. Works include: bless your filthy lil’ heart (2019), The Real Whisperer (2017), I Stand Corrected (2008) Follow Akin: Twitter

Sheldon Shaw A playwright, screenwriter and actor, Sheldon Shaw studied writing at the Labyrinth Theater Company and was part of Playwrights Intensive at the Kennedy Center. Shaw has since developed into a sort of renaissance man, operating as playwright, screenwriter and actor. His plays have been developed by Emerging Artist Theaters New Works Festival, Classical Theater of Harlem and the Rooted Theater Company. Shaw's Glen was the winner of the Black Screenplays Matter competition and a finalist in the New York Screenplay Contest. Works include: Jailbait (2018), Clair (2017), Baby Starbucks (2015) Follow Johnny: Twitter

Nia O. Witherspoon Multidisciplinary artist Nia Ostrow Witherspoon’s metaphysical explorations of black liberation and desire have made her an in-demand presence in theater circles. The recipient of multiple honors—include New York Theatre Workshop’s 2050 Fellowship, a Wurlitzer Foundation residency and the Lambda Literary’s Emerging Playwriting Fellowship—she is currently developing The Dark Girl Chronicles, a play cycle that, in her words, “explores the criminalization of black cis and trans women via African diaspora sacred stories.” Works include: The Dark Girl Chronicles (in progress) ​Follow Nia: Instagram

Brandon Webster A Brooklyn-based musical theatre writer and dramaturg, Brandon Webster has been a familiar figure in the NYC theater scene, both onstage and behind the scenes. With an aesthetic that fuses Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist storytelling, with a focus on Black liberation past and present, the composer’s work fuses psychedelic soul flourishes with alt-R&B nuances to create a sonic smorgasbord of seething rage and remorse. He is an alumnus of the 2013 class of BMI Musical Theater Workshop and a 2017 MCC Theater Artistic Fellow. Works include: Metropolis (in progress), Headlines (2017), Boogie Nights (2015) Follow Brandon: Instagram

#Black #Black LGBTQ #LGBTQ #Playwrights #Musical Theatre #Musical Theater #Writers #TimeOut #timeoutnewyork #Marcus Scott #MarcusScott #Write Marcus #WriteMarcus #Theater

[joncrawford]

Best of COVID-2019: (Late) 2019 End of Year Wrap-up

Even though we’re well into 2020, most of us would probably swallow a pill that makes us forget the year so far. With a new job, I got too busy to do an end-of-year wrap-up of my picks for the best albums, movies and shows of 2019, so assuming you’ve swallowed your Hindsight Pill™ (get it?, cause hindsight is 20..ok, fair if you stop reading now) here’s my take on the best music, movies and shows of 2019. Maybe you’ll find something to make the rest of quarantine a little better.

ALBUMS

Remind Me Tomorrow by Sharon Van Etten on Spotify

It’s hard to find a better album this year. It’s heartfelt, gentle in places / wild in others, it pushes her sound forward from her more folky records of the past and gives us the opportunity to gaze into this sensitive she-hulk of an artist’s soul.

Favorite Track: Jupiter 4 - Jupiter 4, a song by Sharon Van Etten on Spotify

Lux Prima by Karen O on Spotify

This concept album by Karen O (“Yeah Yeah Yeahs”) and Danger Mouse (“Broken Bells”, “Gnarls Barkley”) can best be described as a record composed by badass feminine superhero from the future who has a nostalgic fascination with soundtracks from 70s European love story films. It’s phenomenal. The chord progressions are unusual and interesting. The vibe is consistent throughout. It’s a great record to listen to intentionally or a perfect soundtrack to a day outside with friends.

Favorite Track: Nox Lumina - Nox Lumina, a song by Karen O, Danger Mouse on Spotify

Lana Del Rey - “Norman F*ing Rockwell“ (censored for my mom)

I get it. You stopped following Lana after “Summertime Sadness”. She’s not your jam. She’s vapid. There’s something about her appearance that you don’t like (Didn’t she get her lips done?). She doesn’t make serious music. Here’s the thing though: You’re f*cking wrong (censored for mom). LDR is one of the most prolific songwriters and performers we’ve got. This artist has evolved with each album and the songwriting keeps improving. This is her best album to date. The lyrics take on deeper themes than her prior records and any ego on previous submissions seems to have been replaced by a general comfort in herself and the discomfort of her experiences and relationships (fictional or not). This is also her release with the lightest touch. She’s not pushing the LDR persona anymore, she’s being herself — take it or leave it. It’s her, your little Venice B!tch (censored for mom). Hi, mom!

Favorite song: Venice Bitch, a song by Lana Del Rey on Spotify

Phoenix by Pedro The Lion on Spotify

This is my favorite artist’s first studio album in 15 years. (!!!) It’s not technically fair to say that because he released several color records in the interim. As a largely one-man show, the DNA was very much the same. But this is a true return to form for the the man known as David Bazan that I’ve been following carefully for 20 years and have seen live too many times to count.

This is a concept album (most of them are) about his experience growing up in Phoenix, AZ. But it’s more about growing up than about Arizona. I got goosebumps and watery eyes the first time I listened carefully to the lyrics of “Yellow Bike” which tells about the experience of getting your first bicycle as a little boy around 1990. For me, this was the apex of my childhood. Absolute freedom and the ability to easily join any pack of desperado bike kids.

The album hits hard with the catchy hooks, introspective lyrics, challenging topics and excellent production & instrumental performances only using standard rock staples like guitar, bass and drums (with a couple quick appearances of an organy synth).

Lyrics, melody & a great beat. This is a fantastic rock album.

Favorite song: Yellow Bike, a song by Pedro The Lion on Spotify

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish on Spotify

Much has been written about this wunderkind. You know her. It’s a great album. She has a promising career ahead of her.

Favorite song: when the party’s over, a song by Billie Eilish on Spotify

SOUND & FURY by Sturgill Simpson on Spotify

This album slays. It’s a badass rock album. If you don’t know Sturgill Simpson, he’s technically a country act… BUT! He’s entirely rejected the conventions of modern country with its shallow lyrical content, right-wing dog whistling and computer-assisted faux harmonies. He sings about psychedelics, his problems with religion and also covers 80s synth-pop in country ballad fashion. Well, forget all that for this record. It’s a banger. This record sounds like Waylon Jennings was cloned 100 years in the future and brought back just to record a ZZ Top album. Major leap for this artist. One of the best of the year.

Favorite song: Make Art Not Friends, a song by Sturgill Simpson on Spotify

ANIMA by Thom Yorke on Spotify

We’ve had a complicated relationship with Thom Yorke’s solo work. As the lead singer of Radiohead, we’ve had to give deference to literally anything with his name on it. But his prior solo works have waded into the avant-garde and we’re entirely listenable in a casual way throughout. This has changed. This record is a masterwork. In fact, it demanded a beautiful short film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (“The Master”, “There Will Be Blood”) released on Netflix earlier in the year featuring no dialogue and Thom and his wife is choreographed love affair starting during a mundane commute. My favorite track is the most peaceful and introspective on the album.

Favorite song: Dawn Chorus, a song by Thom Yorke on Spotify

Fear Inoculum by TOOL on Spotify

It’s TOOL’s first album in 13 years. WHAT. It’s fantastic. Worth the wait? Hell no because that’s too long to wait for almost anything. There are people with Snapchat accounts that weren’t alive when “10,000 Days” came out (2006). 728,000,000 people (presumably, all TOOL fans) died since their last album. I can’t, in good conscience, condone the deprivation of 3/4 of a billion people like that. But it’s SO good. This is metal for people that don’t like metal (I don’t really like metal).

Favorite song: Pneuma, a song by TOOL on Spotify

Screamer by Third Eye Blind on Spotify

I may be literally this bands only fan still paying attention, but I don’t care. They’re still writing fantastic tracks. This was one of my heavy-hitter bands in high school. I learned every song from their first two albums on the guitar. Then I stopped paying attention for like 13 years. In 2016, I ran across a new single by the band and went in with a lot of trepidation. Most bands from your high school years should probably leave it there. There's nothing worse than a band desperately trying to stay relevant with weak ass releases well beyond their shelf life (cough Goo Goo Dolls –– They've put out 4 albums in the last 10 years. 🤦‍♂️) But then I heard Third Eye Blind's pro-Black Lives Matter track “Cop vs. Phone Girl, a song by Third Eye Blind on Spotify” released in 2016. Go back and listen to that one. It's not only catchy as hell, but it's got a gut punch of a message about how shitty is it to be a well-meaning black student in a white-dominated power structure that's supposed to be a safe place like school.

Well 2019’s “Screamer” doesn’t disappoint either. It’s all the same energy and hooks of the band’s early sound with an updated feel and sensibility that still feels like a relevant rock album. All the same things you came to Third Eye for in the past is right here waiting for you on “Screamer”. I know I’m gonna get some flack for this one, but…shut up.

Favorite song: Ways, a song by Third Eye Blind on Spotify Bonus points if you catch the “Outside Lands” ref.

i,i by Bon Iver on Spotify

Short review for people who know how to pronounce the name correctly: It’s a Bon Iver record. Listen to it.

Longer review: It’s pronounced “Bone ee-VAIR” based on the French bon hiver, meaning “good winter”. If this is news to you, here’s a nugget from an interview where the main figure in the band explains it:

When I was living up north I wrote a letter. I’d come across a story about this Alaskan town that the people, the first snow of every year, they come out of their houses and gather in town square. They hug and kiss each other and they say “Bon Iver.” I was like, “whatever that is, that’s cool!” … Then I found out how it’s spelled and it was sort of disappointing. I didn’t like how it looked. It didn’t have any emotion. Looking at it didn’t make any sense. I wanted to look at it and feel something. It was sort of a compromise. I sorta wanted it to be like “Bon Iverre,” sort of like how I saw it, but that didn’t look good either, so I just decided to chop off the “h.” Bon Iver | Pitchfork

OK, now that you’re caught up. I guess you haven’t been paying attention, but Justin Vernon or Bon Iver (DBA) is one of the luminaries of the music industry. This grammy-winning dude-band has collaborated with Kanye, Jay-Z, James Blake, Travis $cott, Poliça, Ani DiFranco, Vince Staples, Eminem, Bruce Hornsby and more. But if you need me to explain any of this to you, do yourself a favor and go back and listen to his other 3 studio albums. Every one of them is treasure.

Favorite Song: Hey, Ma, a song by Bon Iver on Spotify This song makes the top 5 of all the tracks he’s released.

MUSIC - Honorable Mentions

Amyl and The Sniffers by Amyl and The Sniffers on Spotify

Two Hands by Big Thief on Spotify

I vs I by Alex Ebert on Spotify

Face Stabber by Thee Oh Sees on Spotify

Infest The Rats’ Nest by King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on Spotify

MOVIES

Hail Satan? (Hulu)

JustWatch

Hilarious look at a group trying to make Free Speech really free.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Duh. Also I got low-key obsessed with cults after I watched this.

MONOS

Incredible Spanish language drama about child soldiers in South America. Great acting by unknowns.

Green Book -Duh

Duh. Won an Best Picture.

Parasite

Duh. Won Best Picture.

Joker

Duh. Won life.

Greener Grass

JustWatch

The weirdest movie I saw all year. Bizarre and hilarious. Written by the two actresses who star.

Apollo 11

INCREDIBLE documentary about the first moon landing mission featuring a ton of footage I’d never seen and assembled into such a magnificent narrative. You feel like it’s happening in real-time today. The last time mankind was united around one hope.

SHOWS

The OA - Season 2 (Netflix)

This was one of the most beautiful creations I’ve seen. Epic followup to the first season which seemed like an impossible act to follow. Netflix canned the show, but there’s still hope it will get a resurrection through another venue.

Watchmen (HBO)

This is a sequel to the critically acclaimed graphic novel from the late 80s. You should read the novel first. As stated two sentences ago, this is a sequel set 34 years after the events of the novel.

The Boys (Amazon)

This is the first realistic superhero story. Why have we always assumed that those with superior or supernatural powers would be intrinsically good and seek to served mankind? Regular humans don’t even act like that toward each other. In this world the soops are like paid athletes and are secretly total pricks. Well made and begging for a second season.

Chernobyl (HBO)

Haven’t seen this? What is wrong with you? It’s in the top 5 highest rated shows of all time on IMDB. One thing I’ll note is that it did a good job separating the characterization of the soviet people from the soviet government. The everyday soviet people in the story came out looking like heroes while the government lived up to its reputation. It made me a lot more curious about soviet history which has led me to other movies, books and Wikipedia rabbit holes. Watch this for the historical value, at a minimum. It’s not as gory as you might be afraid it is.

Love Death + Robots (Netflix)

I love sci-fi and I love weird animation so this just brought it home for me. The episodes are often short and sort of feel like Twilight Zone episodes, each with their own mini narrative or moral lesson. Each episode is made by a different creator or team, so the variety is part of the curb appeal. Great binge material.

#lateMusicReviews musicReviews

[hudsonespie]

Sulfur Out, Scrubbers In

When it comes to environmental pollutants, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. Yet new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target a different toxic molecule: sulfur dioxide. 

You might not be able to picture SO2, but you’d certainly recognize its smell: It’s that brief acrid tang of a struck match or, on a larger scale, the foreboding odor of an active volcano. The etymology of “sulphur” traces back to the Latin word for “burn,” betraying its combustive roots. 

Today, 99 percent of SO2 emissions comes from human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels. The release of large quantities of SO2 into the air causes environmental and human health problems like acid rain and lung disease. 

It’s little surprise, then, that the IMO is seeking to reduce SO2 emissions in the atmosphere, particularly as the shipping industry has been spewing out more and more of it. A 2013 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that between 2000 and 2013, as the amount of cargo loaded worldwide rose 40 percent, SO2 emissions increased nearly 40 percent too.

IMO 2020

There’s legitimate hope for reversing this trend. Enacted on January 1, 2020, the IMO’s landmark initiative, referred to as IMO 2020, builds on various governments’ efforts since the 1970s to reduce air pollution, particularly in the U.S. Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 – remarkably signed into law by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush – significantly decreased SO2 emissions from electric power plants and other industrial sources. 

The measures were so successful that between 1980 and 2018, average SO2 concentrations in the U.S. decreased 91 percent. 

Controlling mobile sources like ships, which contribute three percent of global air pollution, is a tougher target, requiring international coordination. That’s where the IMO comes in – though in the absence of a global policeman, the London-based organization ultimately has to rely on the willingness and ability of cooperating national governments to enforce its regulations. 

Outside of preexisting Emission Control Areas off the coasts of the U.S. and in the Baltic and North Seas, where the SO2 cap is just 0.1 percent, IMO 2020 sets the global maximum limit on sulfur content in marine fuels at a strict 0.5 percent, down more than 80 percent from the previous limit of 3.5 percent. Cutting ship emissions so drastically will undoubtedly help clear the air, preventing premature deaths from air pollution and acid rain. 

The High Cost of Compliance

While humans will be coughing – and dying – less thanks to IMO 2020, shipping lines will have to cough up significantly more money to meet the strict targets. A 2016 OECD report estimated that the container shipping industry may have to spend between $5 billion and $30 billion to get in line. The wide range is due to uncertainties regarding just how much very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) will cost and whether it will even be available in adequate amounts. 

While only a few weeks have passed since IMO 2020 came into effect, the average cost of VLSFO has already risen. In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, it spiked from approximately $550 per metric ton in December 2019 to nearly $750 once the new year began. By mid-January, the spread between VLSFO and conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) had reached $300/ton and was trending higher. For 8,000-TEU vessels relying on VLSFO, this can represent $23,000 in additional daily costs. 

It’s a pricey pill to swallow. It may also be in short supply in places like Iran, along India’s east coast, and in parts of Africa and South America. Furthermore, using VLSFO, especially when it’s created by blending fuels from various oil companies from different parts of the world, may present risks whose consequences are poorly understood. 

Tim Mournian, Chief Engineer for Marine Solutions-North America at Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, explains: “Heavy crude from one region must be treated with additives that are vastly different from the additives needed for light crude from a different global region. How these disparate fuels and additives will interact chemically remains to be seen, and there’s great concern about the impact on engines, fuel oil systems, controls and stack control devices.” 

Scrubbers: Ships’ Salve?

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to VLSFO – scrubbers, which are premised on the same basic technology encouraged by the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce emissions from power plants by literally “scrubbing” out noxious particles from their exhausts. 

On a ship, exhaust stack scrubbers use either sea or freshwater to remove exhaust gases before either discharging the washwater back into the ocean with open-loop systems or, in closed-loop systems, treating the washwater with caustic soda for discharge on land or far at sea. Typically, scrubbers need to be retrofitted onto ships with installations being expensive and occasionally technically challenging, especially when done at sea. 

Despite these hurdles, scrubber technology is attracting growing interest. Camilla Knappskog manages public relations and marketing for Norway’s Clean Marine, which provides exhaust gas cleaning systems to the shipping industry. She says, “Given current fuel spread predictions for 2020/2021, we’re seeing increased shipowner interest in our scrubber technology.”

Engineering firms are also designing a wider diversity of scrubbers to meet industry demands. Nick Confuorto, President & Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey-based CR Ocean Engineering, says that, to ensure his company’s scrubbers meet different installation needs, it’s introduced side-entry, U-shaped, and square designs. The firm is now working on over 150 projects on a range of vessels. 

Pacific Green Technologies is also busy installing scrubbers. The Delaware-based company has completed over 40 installations with another 100 in the pipeline. Chairman & CEO Scott Poulter says scrubbers not only remove SO2 from the exhaust gases of ships’ engines and boilers but up to 94 percent of harmful particulate matter as well – “something that can’t be achieved by switching to low-sulfur fuel.” 

Moreover, scrubbers can eliminate up to 60 percent of black carbon and a significant amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Responding to industry demand for lower-cost scrubbers that still comply with IMO 2020, Pacific Green has designed a highly efficient “naked scrubber” that provides a 15 percent reduction in weight, a 15 percent reduction in retrofit time, and lower risks during installation.  

Detractors 

They’re not without their detractors, however. In particular, the “open loop” variety has sparked concerns about whether air pollution is just being shifted down into the ocean. 

On the one hand, says CR Ocean’s Confuorto, “IMO has strict requirements on acid. They require that the pH of the discharge is 6.5 at four meters from discharge, and in the U.S. it has to be 6.0 pH. We meet both of those, so there’s really no issue with alkalinity or acidity from scrubbers’ discharge.” 

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that all open-loop systems can meet these standards. In November 2019, for instance, the Malaysian government moved to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, requiring instead that vessels use closed-loop systems or compliant fuels. 

Even in waters where open-loop scrubbers are permitted, many regulations still need to be met. New technologies are helping shipowners do just that. Emerson’s Mournian explains: “Controlling the various flows of exhaust gas, sea water, buffer chemicals and overboard discharge is possible using Valve Remote Control systems provided by Emerson Marine. The high torque and easy retrofitting of the actuators allows the circuits to maintain precise control of the scrubber systems while at sea and in port.”

“Future-Proofing” Shipping

Ultimately, ensuring a healthy environment requires the cooperation of international regulatory bodies, governments and industry. 

“We believe the key to cleaner air and reduced emissions is a close collaboration and continuous dialogue between different industries and relevant authorities,” states Clean Marine’s Knappskog, “plus a predictable policy framework.” While government policies may be volatile, they can – when done right – push companies to act in a way the market’s invisible hand may fail to do. Clean Marine sees IMO 2020 as a chance to solve even bigger environmental issues. “Government policies play an important role of incentivizing investments into R&D, green technologies and future-proofing in a way that a self-regulated industry cannot do on its own,” Knappskog concludes. “We see the SOx and NOx focus of IMO 2020 to be the start of a journey that shall address climate challenge and transform shipping into a truly green and sustainable industry.” 

“Future-proofing” – anticipating forthcoming changes and building them into current technology – is a key concept promoted by Clean Marine and gaining wider traction in the shipping industry. At an IMO conference in 2017, Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division, gave a keynote lecture entitled, “Future-Proofing Your Fleet.” In his address, he called IMO a “catalyst for more efficient ships.” Both the private and public sectors, then, are integral to ensuring that shipping gets ahead of its own game. 

For that to really happen, it needs to break its procrastination habit. With this task, shipowners could use a little help. At the end of 2019, those that had delayed deciding between scrubbers or low-sulfur fuel found themselves either struggling to line up installations or purchasing VLSFO at very high cost when long-term contracts could have been signed much earlier. 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but regulatory efforts from bodies like the IMO that push the industry to integrate future-proofing into decision-making and design not only help bottom lines. They help protect the oceans for this generation and the next one too. – MarEx  

Dr. Mia Bennett is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Hong Kong. She is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive Magazine.

from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/sulfur-out-scrubbers-in via http://www.rssmix.com/

[entergamingxp]

NIS America to Reveal New Game on Friday

January 16, 2020 5:41 PM EST

NIS America will be revealing a new game at their PAX South panel on Friday, with a special live stream following right after.

Over on Twitter, the official account for NIS America is teasing a new game reveal and stream at their upcoming PAX South panel on Friday. Like any good tease, fans began speculating right about which game it could potentially be. Let’s take a look at the popular games the community and I are hoping to see.

Out curiosity, what do you all think we’ll be announcing at our PAX South panel on Friday, dood? #PAXSouth2020 pic.twitter.com/MybwiMppFH

— NIS America, Inc. (@NISAmerica) January 15, 2020

The “Good Chance” Games

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in Cold Steel IV End Saga

The most requested title that I saw in the replies, and my biggest hope, is The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV. In the west, NIS America released the third title in this fantastic saga just a few months back, taking the reins over from XSEED who localized the previous Cold Steel games. The last game left on a huge cliffhanger with our characters in quite the precarious spot. The lack of any confirmation that the last game will be localized has left me with a constant twitch in my right eye. I have to know what happens! So do a lot of other people too, it seems.

NIS America doesn’t strike me as picking up the rights to the second-to-last game of a series only to hold off on the last title. The third game has been out since October, and they’ve left fans gripping their seats long enough. announcing the localization at their panel would make for quite the spectacle. The main holdup I could see, however, is if the sales weren’t as good as they had hoped. NIS America gave Trails of Cold Steel III quite the marketing push compared to the previous two titles under XSEED.  If sales didn’t reach the numbers they were hoping, it’s possible they are holding off on the last game until seeing how the Switch port does.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

Following closely on the heels of Class VII, Ys 9: Monstrum Nox is the next popular and logical pick. The latest adventure of the crimson-haired swordsman, released last September in Japan, sees Adol framed and thrown in prison. This action RPG series has been growing in popularity in recent years, thanks in no small part of the PC ports of earlier titles. The last game, Lacrimosa of Dana, was praised for its gameplay but was hurt by the lackluster translation. However, NIS America stepped up, apologized, and showed that they cared enough about this series to re-localize the title.  It would make sense, then, that NIS America would want to bring the latest entry over for the series they care so much about as soon as they can.

If I’m being true to myself, I think Ys has a higher chance of being announced than Trails of Cold Steel 4. Ys is a more established brand in the west and may make a better business case right now. There was a 14-month span between the release of the initial Japanese Vita launch of Lacrimosa of Dana and the US release of the Vita and PlayStation 4 versions.  With Monstrum Nox being a PS4 exclusive, I could see a shorter turnaround being possible, hopefully landing it somewhere in the late spring-early summer range. If this is the case, announcing it now would make a ton of sense.

Something Disgaea

To say that the Disgaea franchise is important to Nippon Ichi Software and NIS America would be a gross understatement. Look at pretty much anything NIS branded and you will see the iconic Prinny penguin mascot adorning it. While they had developed and published games prior, the release of the first title, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness on the PlayStation 2 became an instant classic. With the great characters, funny dialogue, and the ludicrous levels that you could grind to, made this a darling in the eyes from tactical RPG fans. Since then, we’ve seen ports, remasters, sequels, spin-offs and more under the series label. Announcing a new one will always be a big deal.

The main reason that I’m considering a Disgaea game only as a “maybe” is because this is an American event. New games of the franchise are traditionally announced in Japan first, and as much as I would love a Disgaea 2 COMPLETE, I don’t see its initial reveal to be at PAX South. An announcement of a PC port of a previously console-exclusive title would be much more likely, if at all. I’m still going to keep my fingers crossed though, dood.

Ports of the Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? games

I haven’t personally played either of these PSP titles, but there does seem to be some demand for remastered ports in the tweet comments, specifically for Nintendo Switch. Both the initial tease and the announcement of a secret stream after their panel included the game’s character, giving fans hope. I think it’s more just that it’s their mascot that they like to use. For their sake though, I hope they get what they want. I’d play it.

Luckily, fans won’t have long to speculate with the reveal happening tomorrow. I think they should just announce all these things, that way everyone is happy. Wouldn’t that be nice?

January 16, 2020 5:41 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/nis-america-to-reveal-new-game-on-friday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nis-america-to-reveal-new-game-on-friday

[hudsonespie]

Sulfur Out, Scrubbers In

When it comes to environmental pollutants, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. Yet new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target a different toxic molecule: sulfur dioxide. 

You might not be able to picture SO2, but you’d certainly recognize its smell: It’s that brief acrid tang of a struck match or, on a larger scale, the foreboding odor of an active volcano. The etymology of “sulphur” traces back to the Latin word for “burn,” betraying its combustive roots. 

Today, 99 percent of SO2 emissions comes from human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels. The release of large quantities of SO2 into the air causes environmental and human health problems like acid rain and lung disease. 

It’s little surprise, then, that the IMO is seeking to reduce SO2 emissions in the atmosphere, particularly as the shipping industry has been spewing out more and more of it. A 2013 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that between 2000 and 2013, as the amount of cargo loaded worldwide rose 40 percent, SO2 emissions increased nearly 40 percent too.

IMO 2020

There’s legitimate hope for reversing this trend. Enacted on January 1, 2020, the IMO’s landmark initiative, referred to as IMO 2020, builds on various governments’ efforts since the 1970s to reduce air pollution, particularly in the U.S. Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 – remarkably signed into law by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush – significantly decreased SO2 emissions from electric power plants and other industrial sources. 

The measures were so successful that between 1980 and 2018, average SO2 concentrations in the U.S. decreased 91 percent. 

Controlling mobile sources like ships, which contribute three percent of global air pollution, is a tougher target, requiring international coordination. That’s where the IMO comes in – though in the absence of a global policeman, the London-based organization ultimately has to rely on the willingness and ability of cooperating national governments to enforce its regulations. 

Outside of preexisting Emission Control Areas off the coasts of the U.S. and in the Baltic and North Seas, where the SO2 cap is just 0.1 percent, IMO 2020 sets the global maximum limit on sulfur content in marine fuels at a strict 0.5 percent, down more than 80 percent from the previous limit of 3.5 percent. Cutting ship emissions so drastically will undoubtedly help clear the air, preventing premature deaths from air pollution and acid rain. 

The High Cost of Compliance

While humans will be coughing – and dying – less thanks to IMO 2020, shipping lines will have to cough up significantly more money to meet the strict targets. A 2016 OECD report estimated that the container shipping industry may have to spend between $5 billion and $30 billion to get in line. The wide range is due to uncertainties regarding just how much very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) will cost and whether it will even be available in adequate amounts. 

While only a few weeks have passed since IMO 2020 came into effect, the average cost of VLSFO has already risen. In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, it spiked from approximately $550 per metric ton in December 2019 to nearly $750 once the new year began. By mid-January, the spread between VLSFO and conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) had reached $300/ton and was trending higher. For 8,000-TEU vessels relying on VLSFO, this can represent $23,000 in additional daily costs. 

It’s a pricey pill to swallow. It may also be in short supply in places like Iran, along India’s east coast, and in parts of Africa and South America. Furthermore, using VLSFO, especially when it’s created by blending fuels from various oil companies from different parts of the world, may present risks whose consequences are poorly understood. 

Tim Mournian, Chief Engineer for Marine Solutions-North America at Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, explains: “Heavy crude from one region must be treated with additives that are vastly different from the additives needed for light crude from a different global region. How these disparate fuels and additives will interact chemically remains to be seen, and there’s great concern about the impact on engines, fuel oil systems, controls and stack control devices.” 

Scrubbers: Ships’ Salve?

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to VLSFO – scrubbers, which are premised on the same basic technology encouraged by the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce emissions from power plants by literally “scrubbing” out noxious particles from their exhausts. 

On a ship, exhaust stack scrubbers use either sea or freshwater to remove exhaust gases before either discharging the washwater back into the ocean with open-loop systems or, in closed-loop systems, treating the washwater with caustic soda for discharge on land or far at sea. Typically, scrubbers need to be retrofitted onto ships with installations being expensive and occasionally technically challenging, especially when done at sea. 

Despite these hurdles, scrubber technology is attracting growing interest. Camilla Knappskog manages public relations and marketing for Norway’s Clean Marine, which provides exhaust gas cleaning systems to the shipping industry. She says, “Given current fuel spread predictions for 2020/2021, we’re seeing increased shipowner interest in our scrubber technology.”

Engineering firms are also designing a wider diversity of scrubbers to meet industry demands. Nick Confuorto, President & Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey-based CR Ocean Engineering, says that, to ensure his company’s scrubbers meet different installation needs, it’s introduced side-entry, U-shaped, and square designs. The firm is now working on over 150 projects on a range of vessels. 

Pacific Green Technologies is also busy installing scrubbers. The Delaware-based company has completed over 40 installations with another 100 in the pipeline. Chairman & CEO Scott Poulter says scrubbers not only remove SO2 from the exhaust gases of ships’ engines and boilers but up to 94 percent of harmful particulate matter as well – “something that can’t be achieved by switching to low-sulfur fuel.” 

Moreover, scrubbers can eliminate up to 60 percent of black carbon and a significant amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Responding to industry demand for lower-cost scrubbers that still comply with IMO 2020, Pacific Green has designed a highly efficient “naked scrubber” that provides a 15 percent reduction in weight, a 15 percent reduction in retrofit time, and lower risks during installation.  

Detractors 

They’re not without their detractors, however. In particular, the “open loop” variety has sparked concerns about whether air pollution is just being shifted down into the ocean. 

On the one hand, says CR Ocean’s Confuorto, “IMO has strict requirements on acid. They require that the pH of the discharge is 6.5 at four meters from discharge, and in the U.S. it has to be 6.0 pH. We meet both of those, so there’s really no issue with alkalinity or acidity from scrubbers’ discharge.” 

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that all open-loop systems can meet these standards. In November 2019, for instance, the Malaysian government moved to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, requiring instead that vessels use closed-loop systems or compliant fuels. 

Even in waters where open-loop scrubbers are permitted, many regulations still need to be met. New technologies are helping shipowners do just that. Emerson’s Mournian explains: “Controlling the various flows of exhaust gas, sea water, buffer chemicals and overboard discharge is possible using Valve Remote Control systems provided by Emerson Marine. The high torque and easy retrofitting of the actuators allows the circuits to maintain precise control of the scrubber systems while at sea and in port.”

“Future-Proofing” Shipping

Ultimately, ensuring a healthy environment requires the cooperation of international regulatory bodies, governments and industry. 

“We believe the key to cleaner air and reduced emissions is a close collaboration and continuous dialogue between different industries and relevant authorities,” states Clean Marine’s Knappskog, “plus a predictable policy framework.” While government policies may be volatile, they can – when done right – push companies to act in a way the market’s invisible hand may fail to do. Clean Marine sees IMO 2020 as a chance to solve even bigger environmental issues. “Government policies play an important role of incentivizing investments into R&D, green technologies and future-proofing in a way that a self-regulated industry cannot do on its own,” Knappskog concludes. “We see the SOx and NOx focus of IMO 2020 to be the start of a journey that shall address climate challenge and transform shipping into a truly green and sustainable industry.” 

“Future-proofing” – anticipating forthcoming changes and building them into current technology – is a key concept promoted by Clean Marine and gaining wider traction in the shipping industry. At an IMO conference in 2017, Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division, gave a keynote lecture entitled, “Future-Proofing Your Fleet.” In his address, he called IMO a “catalyst for more efficient ships.” Both the private and public sectors, then, are integral to ensuring that shipping gets ahead of its own game. 

For that to really happen, it needs to break its procrastination habit. With this task, shipowners could use a little help. At the end of 2019, those that had delayed deciding between scrubbers or low-sulfur fuel found themselves either struggling to line up installations or purchasing VLSFO at very high cost when long-term contracts could have been signed much earlier. 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but regulatory efforts from bodies like the IMO that push the industry to integrate future-proofing into decision-making and design not only help bottom lines. They help protect the oceans for this generation and the next one too. – MarEx  

Dr. Mia Bennett is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Hong Kong. She is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive Magazine.

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/sulfur-out-scrubbers-in via http://www.rssmix.com/

[hudsonespie]

Sulfur Out, Scrubbers In

When it comes to environmental pollutants, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. Yet new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target a different toxic molecule: sulfur dioxide. 

You might not be able to picture SO2, but you’d certainly recognize its smell: It’s that brief acrid tang of a struck match or, on a larger scale, the foreboding odor of an active volcano. The etymology of “sulphur” traces back to the Latin word for “burn,” betraying its combustive roots. 

Today, 99 percent of SO2 emissions comes from human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels. The release of large quantities of SO2 into the air causes environmental and human health problems like acid rain and lung disease. 

It’s little surprise, then, that the IMO is seeking to reduce SO2 emissions in the atmosphere, particularly as the shipping industry has been spewing out more and more of it. A 2013 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that between 2000 and 2013, as the amount of cargo loaded worldwide rose 40 percent, SO2 emissions increased nearly 40 percent too.

IMO 2020

There’s legitimate hope for reversing this trend. Enacted on January 1, 2020, the IMO’s landmark initiative, referred to as IMO 2020, builds on various governments’ efforts since the 1970s to reduce air pollution, particularly in the U.S. Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 – remarkably signed into law by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush – significantly decreased SO2 emissions from electric power plants and other industrial sources. 

The measures were so successful that between 1980 and 2018, average SO2 concentrations in the U.S. decreased 91 percent. 

Controlling mobile sources like ships, which contribute three percent of global air pollution, is a tougher target, requiring international coordination. That’s where the IMO comes in – though in the absence of a global policeman, the London-based organization ultimately has to rely on the willingness and ability of cooperating national governments to enforce its regulations. 

Outside of preexisting Emission Control Areas off the coasts of the U.S. and in the Baltic and North Seas, where the SO2 cap is just 0.1 percent, IMO 2020 sets the global maximum limit on sulfur content in marine fuels at a strict 0.5 percent, down more than 80 percent from the previous limit of 3.5 percent. Cutting ship emissions so drastically will undoubtedly help clear the air, preventing premature deaths from air pollution and acid rain. 

The High Cost of Compliance

While humans will be coughing – and dying – less thanks to IMO 2020, shipping lines will have to cough up significantly more money to meet the strict targets. A 2016 OECD report estimated that the container shipping industry may have to spend between $5 billion and $30 billion to get in line. The wide range is due to uncertainties regarding just how much very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) will cost and whether it will even be available in adequate amounts. 

While only a few weeks have passed since IMO 2020 came into effect, the average cost of VLSFO has already risen. In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, it spiked from approximately $550 per metric ton in December 2019 to nearly $750 once the new year began. By mid-January, the spread between VLSFO and conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) had reached $300/ton and was trending higher. For 8,000-TEU vessels relying on VLSFO, this can represent $23,000 in additional daily costs. 

It’s a pricey pill to swallow. It may also be in short supply in places like Iran, along India’s east coast, and in parts of Africa and South America. Furthermore, using VLSFO, especially when it’s created by blending fuels from various oil companies from different parts of the world, may present risks whose consequences are poorly understood. 

Tim Mournian, Chief Engineer for Marine Solutions-North America at Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, explains: “Heavy crude from one region must be treated with additives that are vastly different from the additives needed for light crude from a different global region. How these disparate fuels and additives will interact chemically remains to be seen, and there’s great concern about the impact on engines, fuel oil systems, controls and stack control devices.” 

Scrubbers: Ships’ Salve?

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to VLSFO – scrubbers, which are premised on the same basic technology encouraged by the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce emissions from power plants by literally “scrubbing” out noxious particles from their exhausts. 

On a ship, exhaust stack scrubbers use either sea or freshwater to remove exhaust gases before either discharging the washwater back into the ocean with open-loop systems or, in closed-loop systems, treating the washwater with caustic soda for discharge on land or far at sea. Typically, scrubbers need to be retrofitted onto ships with installations being expensive and occasionally technically challenging, especially when done at sea. 

Despite these hurdles, scrubber technology is attracting growing interest. Camilla Knappskog manages public relations and marketing for Norway’s Clean Marine, which provides exhaust gas cleaning systems to the shipping industry. She says, “Given current fuel spread predictions for 2020/2021, we’re seeing increased shipowner interest in our scrubber technology.”

Engineering firms are also designing a wider diversity of scrubbers to meet industry demands. Nick Confuorto, President & Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey-based CR Ocean Engineering, says that, to ensure his company’s scrubbers meet different installation needs, it’s introduced side-entry, U-shaped, and square designs. The firm is now working on over 150 projects on a range of vessels. 

Pacific Green Technologies is also busy installing scrubbers. The Delaware-based company has completed over 40 installations with another 100 in the pipeline. Chairman & CEO Scott Poulter says scrubbers not only remove SO2 from the exhaust gases of ships’ engines and boilers but up to 94 percent of harmful particulate matter as well – “something that can’t be achieved by switching to low-sulfur fuel.” 

Moreover, scrubbers can eliminate up to 60 percent of black carbon and a significant amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Responding to industry demand for lower-cost scrubbers that still comply with IMO 2020, Pacific Green has designed a highly efficient “naked scrubber” that provides a 15 percent reduction in weight, a 15 percent reduction in retrofit time, and lower risks during installation.  

Detractors 

They’re not without their detractors, however. In particular, the “open loop” variety has sparked concerns about whether air pollution is just being shifted down into the ocean. 

On the one hand, says CR Ocean’s Confuorto, “IMO has strict requirements on acid. They require that the pH of the discharge is 6.5 at four meters from discharge, and in the U.S. it has to be 6.0 pH. We meet both of those, so there’s really no issue with alkalinity or acidity from scrubbers’ discharge.” 

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that all open-loop systems can meet these standards. In November 2019, for instance, the Malaysian government moved to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, requiring instead that vessels use closed-loop systems or compliant fuels. 

Even in waters where open-loop scrubbers are permitted, many regulations still need to be met. New technologies are helping shipowners do just that. Emerson’s Mournian explains: “Controlling the various flows of exhaust gas, sea water, buffer chemicals and overboard discharge is possible using Valve Remote Control systems provided by Emerson Marine. The high torque and easy retrofitting of the actuators allows the circuits to maintain precise control of the scrubber systems while at sea and in port.”

“Future-Proofing” Shipping

Ultimately, ensuring a healthy environment requires the cooperation of international regulatory bodies, governments and industry. 

“We believe the key to cleaner air and reduced emissions is a close collaboration and continuous dialogue between different industries and relevant authorities,” states Clean Marine’s Knappskog, “plus a predictable policy framework.” While government policies may be volatile, they can – when done right – push companies to act in a way the market’s invisible hand may fail to do. Clean Marine sees IMO 2020 as a chance to solve even bigger environmental issues. “Government policies play an important role of incentivizing investments into R&D, green technologies and future-proofing in a way that a self-regulated industry cannot do on its own,” Knappskog concludes. “We see the SOx and NOx focus of IMO 2020 to be the start of a journey that shall address climate challenge and transform shipping into a truly green and sustainable industry.” 

“Future-proofing” – anticipating forthcoming changes and building them into current technology – is a key concept promoted by Clean Marine and gaining wider traction in the shipping industry. At an IMO conference in 2017, Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division, gave a keynote lecture entitled, “Future-Proofing Your Fleet.” In his address, he called IMO a “catalyst for more efficient ships.” Both the private and public sectors, then, are integral to ensuring that shipping gets ahead of its own game. 

For that to really happen, it needs to break its procrastination habit. With this task, shipowners could use a little help. At the end of 2019, those that had delayed deciding between scrubbers or low-sulfur fuel found themselves either struggling to line up installations or purchasing VLSFO at very high cost when long-term contracts could have been signed much earlier. 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but regulatory efforts from bodies like the IMO that push the industry to integrate future-proofing into decision-making and design not only help bottom lines. They help protect the oceans for this generation and the next one too. – MarEx  

Dr. Mia Bennett is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Hong Kong. She is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive Magazine.

from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/sulfur-out-scrubbers-in via http://www.rssmix.com/

[hudsonespie]

Sulfur Out, Scrubbers In

When it comes to environmental pollutants, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. Yet new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target a different toxic molecule: sulfur dioxide. 

You might not be able to picture SO2, but you’d certainly recognize its smell: It’s that brief acrid tang of a struck match or, on a larger scale, the foreboding odor of an active volcano. The etymology of “sulphur” traces back to the Latin word for “burn,” betraying its combustive roots. 

Today, 99 percent of SO2 emissions comes from human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels. The release of large quantities of SO2 into the air causes environmental and human health problems like acid rain and lung disease. 

It’s little surprise, then, that the IMO is seeking to reduce SO2 emissions in the atmosphere, particularly as the shipping industry has been spewing out more and more of it. A 2013 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that between 2000 and 2013, as the amount of cargo loaded worldwide rose 40 percent, SO2 emissions increased nearly 40 percent too.

IMO 2020

There’s legitimate hope for reversing this trend. Enacted on January 1, 2020, the IMO’s landmark initiative, referred to as IMO 2020, builds on various governments’ efforts since the 1970s to reduce air pollution, particularly in the U.S. Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 – remarkably signed into law by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush – significantly decreased SO2 emissions from electric power plants and other industrial sources. 

The measures were so successful that between 1980 and 2018, average SO2 concentrations in the U.S. decreased 91 percent. 

Controlling mobile sources like ships, which contribute three percent of global air pollution, is a tougher target, requiring international coordination. That’s where the IMO comes in – though in the absence of a global policeman, the London-based organization ultimately has to rely on the willingness and ability of cooperating national governments to enforce its regulations. 

Outside of preexisting Emission Control Areas off the coasts of the U.S. and in the Baltic and North Seas, where the SO2 cap is just 0.1 percent, IMO 2020 sets the global maximum limit on sulfur content in marine fuels at a strict 0.5 percent, down more than 80 percent from the previous limit of 3.5 percent. Cutting ship emissions so drastically will undoubtedly help clear the air, preventing premature deaths from air pollution and acid rain. 

The High Cost of Compliance

While humans will be coughing – and dying – less thanks to IMO 2020, shipping lines will have to cough up significantly more money to meet the strict targets. A 2016 OECD report estimated that the container shipping industry may have to spend between $5 billion and $30 billion to get in line. The wide range is due to uncertainties regarding just how much very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) will cost and whether it will even be available in adequate amounts. 

While only a few weeks have passed since IMO 2020 came into effect, the average cost of VLSFO has already risen. In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, it spiked from approximately $550 per metric ton in December 2019 to nearly $750 once the new year began. By mid-January, the spread between VLSFO and conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) had reached $300/ton and was trending higher. For 8,000-TEU vessels relying on VLSFO, this can represent $23,000 in additional daily costs. 

It’s a pricey pill to swallow. It may also be in short supply in places like Iran, along India’s east coast, and in parts of Africa and South America. Furthermore, using VLSFO, especially when it’s created by blending fuels from various oil companies from different parts of the world, may present risks whose consequences are poorly understood. 

Tim Mournian, Chief Engineer for Marine Solutions-North America at Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, explains: “Heavy crude from one region must be treated with additives that are vastly different from the additives needed for light crude from a different global region. How these disparate fuels and additives will interact chemically remains to be seen, and there’s great concern about the impact on engines, fuel oil systems, controls and stack control devices.” 

Scrubbers: Ships’ Salve?

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to VLSFO – scrubbers, which are premised on the same basic technology encouraged by the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce emissions from power plants by literally “scrubbing” out noxious particles from their exhausts. 

On a ship, exhaust stack scrubbers use either sea or freshwater to remove exhaust gases before either discharging the washwater back into the ocean with open-loop systems or, in closed-loop systems, treating the washwater with caustic soda for discharge on land or far at sea. Typically, scrubbers need to be retrofitted onto ships with installations being expensive and occasionally technically challenging, especially when done at sea. 

Despite these hurdles, scrubber technology is attracting growing interest. Camilla Knappskog manages public relations and marketing for Norway’s Clean Marine, which provides exhaust gas cleaning systems to the shipping industry. She says, “Given current fuel spread predictions for 2020/2021, we’re seeing increased shipowner interest in our scrubber technology.”

Engineering firms are also designing a wider diversity of scrubbers to meet industry demands. Nick Confuorto, President & Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey-based CR Ocean Engineering, says that, to ensure his company’s scrubbers meet different installation needs, it’s introduced side-entry, U-shaped, and square designs. The firm is now working on over 150 projects on a range of vessels. 

Pacific Green Technologies is also busy installing scrubbers. The Delaware-based company has completed over 40 installations with another 100 in the pipeline. Chairman & CEO Scott Poulter says scrubbers not only remove SO2 from the exhaust gases of ships’ engines and boilers but up to 94 percent of harmful particulate matter as well – “something that can’t be achieved by switching to low-sulfur fuel.” 

Moreover, scrubbers can eliminate up to 60 percent of black carbon and a significant amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Responding to industry demand for lower-cost scrubbers that still comply with IMO 2020, Pacific Green has designed a highly efficient “naked scrubber” that provides a 15 percent reduction in weight, a 15 percent reduction in retrofit time, and lower risks during installation.  

Detractors 

They’re not without their detractors, however. In particular, the “open loop” variety has sparked concerns about whether air pollution is just being shifted down into the ocean. 

On the one hand, says CR Ocean’s Confuorto, “IMO has strict requirements on acid. They require that the pH of the discharge is 6.5 at four meters from discharge, and in the U.S. it has to be 6.0 pH. We meet both of those, so there’s really no issue with alkalinity or acidity from scrubbers’ discharge.” 

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that all open-loop systems can meet these standards. In November 2019, for instance, the Malaysian government moved to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, requiring instead that vessels use closed-loop systems or compliant fuels. 

Even in waters where open-loop scrubbers are permitted, many regulations still need to be met. New technologies are helping shipowners do just that. Emerson’s Mournian explains: “Controlling the various flows of exhaust gas, sea water, buffer chemicals and overboard discharge is possible using Valve Remote Control systems provided by Emerson Marine. The high torque and easy retrofitting of the actuators allows the circuits to maintain precise control of the scrubber systems while at sea and in port.”

“Future-Proofing” Shipping

Ultimately, ensuring a healthy environment requires the cooperation of international regulatory bodies, governments and industry. 

“We believe the key to cleaner air and reduced emissions is a close collaboration and continuous dialogue between different industries and relevant authorities,” states Clean Marine’s Knappskog, “plus a predictable policy framework.” While government policies may be volatile, they can – when done right – push companies to act in a way the market’s invisible hand may fail to do. Clean Marine sees IMO 2020 as a chance to solve even bigger environmental issues. “Government policies play an important role of incentivizing investments into R&D, green technologies and future-proofing in a way that a self-regulated industry cannot do on its own,” Knappskog concludes. “We see the SOx and NOx focus of IMO 2020 to be the start of a journey that shall address climate challenge and transform shipping into a truly green and sustainable industry.” 

“Future-proofing” – anticipating forthcoming changes and building them into current technology – is a key concept promoted by Clean Marine and gaining wider traction in the shipping industry. At an IMO conference in 2017, Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division, gave a keynote lecture entitled, “Future-Proofing Your Fleet.” In his address, he called IMO a “catalyst for more efficient ships.” Both the private and public sectors, then, are integral to ensuring that shipping gets ahead of its own game. 

For that to really happen, it needs to break its procrastination habit. With this task, shipowners could use a little help. At the end of 2019, those that had delayed deciding between scrubbers or low-sulfur fuel found themselves either struggling to line up installations or purchasing VLSFO at very high cost when long-term contracts could have been signed much earlier. 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but regulatory efforts from bodies like the IMO that push the industry to integrate future-proofing into decision-making and design not only help bottom lines. They help protect the oceans for this generation and the next one too. – MarEx  

Dr. Mia Bennett is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Hong Kong. She is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive Magazine.

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/sulfur-out-scrubbers-in via http://www.rssmix.com/

[hudsonespie]

Sulfur Out, Scrubbers In

When it comes to environmental pollutants, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. Yet new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target a different toxic molecule: sulfur dioxide. 

You might not be able to picture SO2, but you’d certainly recognize its smell: It’s that brief acrid tang of a struck match or, on a larger scale, the foreboding odor of an active volcano. The etymology of “sulphur” traces back to the Latin word for “burn,” betraying its combustive roots. 

Today, 99 percent of SO2 emissions comes from human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels. The release of large quantities of SO2 into the air causes environmental and human health problems like acid rain and lung disease. 

It’s little surprise, then, that the IMO is seeking to reduce SO2 emissions in the atmosphere, particularly as the shipping industry has been spewing out more and more of it. A 2013 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that between 2000 and 2013, as the amount of cargo loaded worldwide rose 40 percent, SO2 emissions increased nearly 40 percent too.

IMO 2020

There’s legitimate hope for reversing this trend. Enacted on January 1, 2020, the IMO’s landmark initiative, referred to as IMO 2020, builds on various governments’ efforts since the 1970s to reduce air pollution, particularly in the U.S. Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 – remarkably signed into law by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush – significantly decreased SO2 emissions from electric power plants and other industrial sources. 

The measures were so successful that between 1980 and 2018, average SO2 concentrations in the U.S. decreased 91 percent. 

Controlling mobile sources like ships, which contribute three percent of global air pollution, is a tougher target, requiring international coordination. That’s where the IMO comes in – though in the absence of a global policeman, the London-based organization ultimately has to rely on the willingness and ability of cooperating national governments to enforce its regulations. 

Outside of preexisting Emission Control Areas off the coasts of the U.S. and in the Baltic and North Seas, where the SO2 cap is just 0.1 percent, IMO 2020 sets the global maximum limit on sulfur content in marine fuels at a strict 0.5 percent, down more than 80 percent from the previous limit of 3.5 percent. Cutting ship emissions so drastically will undoubtedly help clear the air, preventing premature deaths from air pollution and acid rain. 

The High Cost of Compliance

While humans will be coughing – and dying – less thanks to IMO 2020, shipping lines will have to cough up significantly more money to meet the strict targets. A 2016 OECD report estimated that the container shipping industry may have to spend between $5 billion and $30 billion to get in line. The wide range is due to uncertainties regarding just how much very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) will cost and whether it will even be available in adequate amounts. 

While only a few weeks have passed since IMO 2020 came into effect, the average cost of VLSFO has already risen. In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, it spiked from approximately $550 per metric ton in December 2019 to nearly $750 once the new year began. By mid-January, the spread between VLSFO and conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) had reached $300/ton and was trending higher. For 8,000-TEU vessels relying on VLSFO, this can represent $23,000 in additional daily costs. 

It’s a pricey pill to swallow. It may also be in short supply in places like Iran, along India’s east coast, and in parts of Africa and South America. Furthermore, using VLSFO, especially when it’s created by blending fuels from various oil companies from different parts of the world, may present risks whose consequences are poorly understood. 

Tim Mournian, Chief Engineer for Marine Solutions-North America at Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, explains: “Heavy crude from one region must be treated with additives that are vastly different from the additives needed for light crude from a different global region. How these disparate fuels and additives will interact chemically remains to be seen, and there’s great concern about the impact on engines, fuel oil systems, controls and stack control devices.” 

Scrubbers: Ships’ Salve?

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to VLSFO – scrubbers, which are premised on the same basic technology encouraged by the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce emissions from power plants by literally “scrubbing” out noxious particles from their exhausts. 

On a ship, exhaust stack scrubbers use either sea or freshwater to remove exhaust gases before either discharging the washwater back into the ocean with open-loop systems or, in closed-loop systems, treating the washwater with caustic soda for discharge on land or far at sea. Typically, scrubbers need to be retrofitted onto ships with installations being expensive and occasionally technically challenging, especially when done at sea. 

Despite these hurdles, scrubber technology is attracting growing interest. Camilla Knappskog manages public relations and marketing for Norway’s Clean Marine, which provides exhaust gas cleaning systems to the shipping industry. She says, “Given current fuel spread predictions for 2020/2021, we’re seeing increased shipowner interest in our scrubber technology.”

Engineering firms are also designing a wider diversity of scrubbers to meet industry demands. Nick Confuorto, President & Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey-based CR Ocean Engineering, says that, to ensure his company’s scrubbers meet different installation needs, it’s introduced side-entry, U-shaped, and square designs. The firm is now working on over 150 projects on a range of vessels. 

Pacific Green Technologies is also busy installing scrubbers. The Delaware-based company has completed over 40 installations with another 100 in the pipeline. Chairman & CEO Scott Poulter says scrubbers not only remove SO2 from the exhaust gases of ships’ engines and boilers but up to 94 percent of harmful particulate matter as well – “something that can’t be achieved by switching to low-sulfur fuel.” 

Moreover, scrubbers can eliminate up to 60 percent of black carbon and a significant amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Responding to industry demand for lower-cost scrubbers that still comply with IMO 2020, Pacific Green has designed a highly efficient “naked scrubber” that provides a 15 percent reduction in weight, a 15 percent reduction in retrofit time, and lower risks during installation.  

Detractors 

They’re not without their detractors, however. In particular, the “open loop” variety has sparked concerns about whether air pollution is just being shifted down into the ocean. 

On the one hand, says CR Ocean’s Confuorto, “IMO has strict requirements on acid. They require that the pH of the discharge is 6.5 at four meters from discharge, and in the U.S. it has to be 6.0 pH. We meet both of those, so there’s really no issue with alkalinity or acidity from scrubbers’ discharge.” 

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that all open-loop systems can meet these standards. In November 2019, for instance, the Malaysian government moved to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, requiring instead that vessels use closed-loop systems or compliant fuels. 

Even in waters where open-loop scrubbers are permitted, many regulations still need to be met. New technologies are helping shipowners do just that. Emerson’s Mournian explains: “Controlling the various flows of exhaust gas, sea water, buffer chemicals and overboard discharge is possible using Valve Remote Control systems provided by Emerson Marine. The high torque and easy retrofitting of the actuators allows the circuits to maintain precise control of the scrubber systems while at sea and in port.”

“Future-Proofing” Shipping

Ultimately, ensuring a healthy environment requires the cooperation of international regulatory bodies, governments and industry. 

“We believe the key to cleaner air and reduced emissions is a close collaboration and continuous dialogue between different industries and relevant authorities,” states Clean Marine’s Knappskog, “plus a predictable policy framework.” While government policies may be volatile, they can – when done right – push companies to act in a way the market’s invisible hand may fail to do. Clean Marine sees IMO 2020 as a chance to solve even bigger environmental issues. “Government policies play an important role of incentivizing investments into R&D, green technologies and future-proofing in a way that a self-regulated industry cannot do on its own,” Knappskog concludes. “We see the SOx and NOx focus of IMO 2020 to be the start of a journey that shall address climate challenge and transform shipping into a truly green and sustainable industry.” 

“Future-proofing” – anticipating forthcoming changes and building them into current technology – is a key concept promoted by Clean Marine and gaining wider traction in the shipping industry. At an IMO conference in 2017, Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division, gave a keynote lecture entitled, “Future-Proofing Your Fleet.” In his address, he called IMO a “catalyst for more efficient ships.” Both the private and public sectors, then, are integral to ensuring that shipping gets ahead of its own game. 

For that to really happen, it needs to break its procrastination habit. With this task, shipowners could use a little help. At the end of 2019, those that had delayed deciding between scrubbers or low-sulfur fuel found themselves either struggling to line up installations or purchasing VLSFO at very high cost when long-term contracts could have been signed much earlier. 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but regulatory efforts from bodies like the IMO that push the industry to integrate future-proofing into decision-making and design not only help bottom lines. They help protect the oceans for this generation and the next one too. – MarEx  

Dr. Mia Bennett is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Hong Kong. She is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive Magazine.

from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/sulfur-out-scrubbers-in via http://www.rssmix.com/

[hudsonespie]

Sulfur Out, Scrubbers In

When it comes to environmental pollutants, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. Yet new regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target a different toxic molecule: sulfur dioxide. 

You might not be able to picture SO2, but you’d certainly recognize its smell: It’s that brief acrid tang of a struck match or, on a larger scale, the foreboding odor of an active volcano. The etymology of “sulphur” traces back to the Latin word for “burn,” betraying its combustive roots. 

Today, 99 percent of SO2 emissions comes from human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels. The release of large quantities of SO2 into the air causes environmental and human health problems like acid rain and lung disease. 

It’s little surprise, then, that the IMO is seeking to reduce SO2 emissions in the atmosphere, particularly as the shipping industry has been spewing out more and more of it. A 2013 study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that between 2000 and 2013, as the amount of cargo loaded worldwide rose 40 percent, SO2 emissions increased nearly 40 percent too.

IMO 2020

There’s legitimate hope for reversing this trend. Enacted on January 1, 2020, the IMO’s landmark initiative, referred to as IMO 2020, builds on various governments’ efforts since the 1970s to reduce air pollution, particularly in the U.S. Amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990 – remarkably signed into law by a Republican President, George H.W. Bush – significantly decreased SO2 emissions from electric power plants and other industrial sources. 

The measures were so successful that between 1980 and 2018, average SO2 concentrations in the U.S. decreased 91 percent. 

Controlling mobile sources like ships, which contribute three percent of global air pollution, is a tougher target, requiring international coordination. That’s where the IMO comes in – though in the absence of a global policeman, the London-based organization ultimately has to rely on the willingness and ability of cooperating national governments to enforce its regulations. 

Outside of preexisting Emission Control Areas off the coasts of the U.S. and in the Baltic and North Seas, where the SO2 cap is just 0.1 percent, IMO 2020 sets the global maximum limit on sulfur content in marine fuels at a strict 0.5 percent, down more than 80 percent from the previous limit of 3.5 percent. Cutting ship emissions so drastically will undoubtedly help clear the air, preventing premature deaths from air pollution and acid rain. 

The High Cost of Compliance

While humans will be coughing – and dying – less thanks to IMO 2020, shipping lines will have to cough up significantly more money to meet the strict targets. A 2016 OECD report estimated that the container shipping industry may have to spend between $5 billion and $30 billion to get in line. The wide range is due to uncertainties regarding just how much very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) will cost and whether it will even be available in adequate amounts. 

While only a few weeks have passed since IMO 2020 came into effect, the average cost of VLSFO has already risen. In Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub, it spiked from approximately $550 per metric ton in December 2019 to nearly $750 once the new year began. By mid-January, the spread between VLSFO and conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) had reached $300/ton and was trending higher. For 8,000-TEU vessels relying on VLSFO, this can represent $23,000 in additional daily costs. 

It’s a pricey pill to swallow. It may also be in short supply in places like Iran, along India’s east coast, and in parts of Africa and South America. Furthermore, using VLSFO, especially when it’s created by blending fuels from various oil companies from different parts of the world, may present risks whose consequences are poorly understood. 

Tim Mournian, Chief Engineer for Marine Solutions-North America at Emerson, a Fortune 500 company, explains: “Heavy crude from one region must be treated with additives that are vastly different from the additives needed for light crude from a different global region. How these disparate fuels and additives will interact chemically remains to be seen, and there’s great concern about the impact on engines, fuel oil systems, controls and stack control devices.” 

Scrubbers: Ships’ Salve?

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to VLSFO – scrubbers, which are premised on the same basic technology encouraged by the Clean Air Act of 1990 to reduce emissions from power plants by literally “scrubbing” out noxious particles from their exhausts. 

On a ship, exhaust stack scrubbers use either sea or freshwater to remove exhaust gases before either discharging the washwater back into the ocean with open-loop systems or, in closed-loop systems, treating the washwater with caustic soda for discharge on land or far at sea. Typically, scrubbers need to be retrofitted onto ships with installations being expensive and occasionally technically challenging, especially when done at sea. 

Despite these hurdles, scrubber technology is attracting growing interest. Camilla Knappskog manages public relations and marketing for Norway’s Clean Marine, which provides exhaust gas cleaning systems to the shipping industry. She says, “Given current fuel spread predictions for 2020/2021, we’re seeing increased shipowner interest in our scrubber technology.”

Engineering firms are also designing a wider diversity of scrubbers to meet industry demands. Nick Confuorto, President & Chief Operating Officer of New Jersey-based CR Ocean Engineering, says that, to ensure his company’s scrubbers meet different installation needs, it’s introduced side-entry, U-shaped, and square designs. The firm is now working on over 150 projects on a range of vessels. 

Pacific Green Technologies is also busy installing scrubbers. The Delaware-based company has completed over 40 installations with another 100 in the pipeline. Chairman & CEO Scott Poulter says scrubbers not only remove SO2 from the exhaust gases of ships’ engines and boilers but up to 94 percent of harmful particulate matter as well – “something that can’t be achieved by switching to low-sulfur fuel.” 

Moreover, scrubbers can eliminate up to 60 percent of black carbon and a significant amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Responding to industry demand for lower-cost scrubbers that still comply with IMO 2020, Pacific Green has designed a highly efficient “naked scrubber” that provides a 15 percent reduction in weight, a 15 percent reduction in retrofit time, and lower risks during installation.  

Detractors 

They’re not without their detractors, however. In particular, the “open loop” variety has sparked concerns about whether air pollution is just being shifted down into the ocean. 

On the one hand, says CR Ocean’s Confuorto, “IMO has strict requirements on acid. They require that the pH of the discharge is 6.5 at four meters from discharge, and in the U.S. it has to be 6.0 pH. We meet both of those, so there’s really no issue with alkalinity or acidity from scrubbers’ discharge.” 

On the other hand, not everyone is convinced that all open-loop systems can meet these standards. In November 2019, for instance, the Malaysian government moved to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers in its waters, requiring instead that vessels use closed-loop systems or compliant fuels. 

Even in waters where open-loop scrubbers are permitted, many regulations still need to be met. New technologies are helping shipowners do just that. Emerson’s Mournian explains: “Controlling the various flows of exhaust gas, sea water, buffer chemicals and overboard discharge is possible using Valve Remote Control systems provided by Emerson Marine. The high torque and easy retrofitting of the actuators allows the circuits to maintain precise control of the scrubber systems while at sea and in port.”

“Future-Proofing” Shipping

Ultimately, ensuring a healthy environment requires the cooperation of international regulatory bodies, governments and industry. 

“We believe the key to cleaner air and reduced emissions is a close collaboration and continuous dialogue between different industries and relevant authorities,” states Clean Marine’s Knappskog, “plus a predictable policy framework.” While government policies may be volatile, they can – when done right – push companies to act in a way the market’s invisible hand may fail to do. Clean Marine sees IMO 2020 as a chance to solve even bigger environmental issues. “Government policies play an important role of incentivizing investments into R&D, green technologies and future-proofing in a way that a self-regulated industry cannot do on its own,” Knappskog concludes. “We see the SOx and NOx focus of IMO 2020 to be the start of a journey that shall address climate challenge and transform shipping into a truly green and sustainable industry.” 

“Future-proofing” – anticipating forthcoming changes and building them into current technology – is a key concept promoted by Clean Marine and gaining wider traction in the shipping industry. At an IMO conference in 2017, Stefan Micallef, Director of the Marine Environment Division, gave a keynote lecture entitled, “Future-Proofing Your Fleet.” In his address, he called IMO a “catalyst for more efficient ships.” Both the private and public sectors, then, are integral to ensuring that shipping gets ahead of its own game. 

For that to really happen, it needs to break its procrastination habit. With this task, shipowners could use a little help. At the end of 2019, those that had delayed deciding between scrubbers or low-sulfur fuel found themselves either struggling to line up installations or purchasing VLSFO at very high cost when long-term contracts could have been signed much earlier. 

Nobody has a crystal ball, but regulatory efforts from bodies like the IMO that push the industry to integrate future-proofing into decision-making and design not only help bottom lines. They help protect the oceans for this generation and the next one too. – MarEx  

Dr. Mia Bennett is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Hong Kong. She is a frequent contributor to The Maritime Executive Magazine.

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/sulfur-out-scrubbers-in via http://www.rssmix.com/