Japan has successfully completed a trial on switching over from heavy fuel oil to low sulphur fuel oil on four coastal vessels.
The tests were run on four ships of between 499 gt and 799 gt including cement and steel products carriers.
Compliant fuel oil with a sulphur content under 0.5% was bunkered onto the ships without prior tank cleaning and with a small amount of heavy fuel oil remaining in the tanks. Trials lasted for one week and with the vessels trading on Japanese coastal routes.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Tourism and Transport (MLIT), which ran the tests, said that there was no problem in the operation of the vessels following the fuel switch. It detected no issues with the compatibility of the fuels and said that no sludge was created by using the new fuels.
However, the MLIT did not specify the source or composition of the low sulphur fuel oil.
This was the first in a series of tests planned by the MLIT between now and September ahead of the IMO 2020 switch to low sulphur fuels on a wider variety of ships
