Published by The Maritime Executive

Published by The Maritime Executive

Published by Mikael Lind et al.

Published May 10, 2018 7:08 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Port of Amsterdam will soon be home to a chemical plant designed to convert non-recyclable plastics into usable diesel fuel using pyrolysis. The Port of Amsterdam and the facility's operator, Dutch startup Bin2Barrel, believe that its operation will reduce net CO2 emissions by about 57,000 tonnes per year. The port and Bin2Barrel believe that the $33 million facility it will be the first commercial application of plastics-to-oil technology. 

The Bin2Barrel plant at the Port of Amsterdam will repurpose non-recyclable plastics that Dutch waste collectors would otherwise burn. It has a design capacity of 35,000 tonnes per year of feedstock and 190,000 barrels of synthetic fuel, far more than previous installations. Its output will be marketed to marine users. 

Other firms have deployed comparable methods in the plastics-recycling market, though not at the same scale. Among other examples, U.S.-based Agilyx developed a batch pyrolysis process for converting plastics to synthetic crude in 2008 and recently switched to a plastics-to-chemicals business model. Indian firm Agile Process (APC) has installed small-scale plastics-to-oil equipment in Kenya, India and Europe. Scottish firm Recycling Technologies has a trial-scale plastic-to-oil plant in Swindon and is building a commercialized version in Perth later this year. 

"By creating a new product from an otherwise problematic waste product, Bin2Barrel fits perfectly within the mission of Port of Amsterdam to facilitate energy transition as well as transition to a circular economy," said Roon van Maanen, Head of Circular & Renewable Industry at Port of Amsterdam. “Bin2Barrel introduces innovative and badly needed technology that will enable us to make use of a currently non-recyclable flow of waste in a manner that makes perfect sense."

Published Jun 10, 2022 2:41 PM by The Maritime Executive

In a keynote address at the Posidonia conference, ABS chief Christopher J. Wiernicki made a bold announcement: the class society believes that "net zero cannot realistically be delivered without efficient carbon capture and storage technology" for ships. Onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS) is a technology in the early stages of commercial development. Typically deployed in combination with a scrubber, an OCCS system captures a percentage of the CO2 from the exhaust stream and stores it on board. The percentage...

Published Jun 10, 2022 2:40 PM by The Maritime Executive

Senior officers of the Indonesian Navy met with the media on Friday to deny reports of officers soliciting payments from tankers being detained in Indonesia waters. Reuters on June 9 published for the second time reports that officers from the Indonesian Navy were asking for payments of up to $375,000 to release tankers being detained for illegally anchoring near Batam, an island 20 miles south of Singapore and home to the island nation’s naval base. "I need to convey that...

Published Jun 10, 2022 1:19 PM by Mikael Lind et al.

[By Mikael Lind, Wolfgang Lehmacher, Sara Åhlén Björk, Sandra Haraldson, Christopher Påhlsson, Risto Penttilä, Kirsi Tikka, and Richard T. Watson] The maritime industry is highly dependent on fossil fuels and emitted about 1.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) in 2020, equivalent to about 3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is more than the world's 5th GHG emitting country. However, given the cross-border nature of the maritime sector, it is not addressed in the national determined contributions (NDCs)....

Published Jun 10, 2022 12:43 AM by The Conversation

[By Ted Scambos] Flying over Antarctica, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. Like a gigantic wedding cake, the frosting of snow on top of the world’s largest ice sheet looks smooth and unblemished, beautiful and perfectly white. Little swirls of snow dunes cover the surface. But as you approach the edge of the ice sheet, a sense of tremendous underlying power emerges. Cracks appear in the surface, sometimes organized like a washboard, and sometimes a complete...

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