Aggregate Industries partners with SodaFlexx to install SOx scrubber

Bontrup and buildings material company Aggregate Industries have worked with Sodaflexx, a UK-based scrubber manufacturer, to install Sodaflexx’s sodium-bicarbonate-based scrubber aboard bulk carrier Bontrup Amsterdam.

Sodaflexx manufactures a dry powder exhaust gas cleaning system which allows owners to burn high sulphur fuel oil and treats the exhaust gas with sodium bicarbonate. The dry exhaust gas cleaning system has now been installed aboard 65,402-dwt Bontrup Amsterdam.

The scrubber injects dry sodium bicarbonate into a vessel’s exhaust gas stream, and in the heat and turbulence of the exhaust, a reaction occurs to neutralise sulphur compounds and capture black carbon and other organic compounds.

According to Sodaflexx chief executive Barry Bednar, the scrubber system is also capable of lowering the carbon intensity of operations for vessels.

In neutralising the sulphur content of exhaust gases, SodaFlexx scrubber use allows a vessel owner to benefit from any price differential between MGO and HSFO fuels, a selling point that depends on notoriously rocky fuels markets.

Sodaflexx had previously installed the scrubber on another Bontrup bulker, 96,772-dwt Yeoman Bridge, in 2021.