Abstract:Ship recycling yards around the world offer a price to the ship owners for buying an obsolete vessel to demolish and recycle based on the ship's end-of-life weight. The offer price is mainly based on the type of ship and the estimated quantity of steel available. The steel weight estimation, in terms of percentage of lightweight (LDT), is carried out either on the basis of recycling yards' experience or by an expert opinion without using any scientifically rigorous method. The accurate quantification of all the material streams of an end-of-life ship is needed for planning the ship recycling process with better resource allocation and waste management strategies, especially in light of the Hong Kong convention and the new EU regulation on ship recycling. It might also assist in better estimation of cost and income of recycling the ship. A literature survey of the subject found that a clear knowledge gap exists in this area of study, only aggregate data of materials of ships is available, no ship by ship data exist. Thus, in this paper, a methodology to quantify material streams of an individual ship using the information readily available at the end of its life is presented. The advantages of using the developed methodology are explained. Lastly, a few recommendations to improve future ship designs for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling are presented based on the knowledge gained in the methodology development process.
The ship owner's decision to select a recycling yard for dismantling and recycling an end-of-life ship is primarily influenced by the price offered for purchasing the ship. The recycling yards offering 'green' recycling services generally quote lower prices than other yards due to the higher cost of dismantling a ship by following international ship recycling regulations and health, safety and environmental (HSE) management systems. Such 'green' recycling yards must either lower their costs or increase their revenues to offer better prices to ship owners compared to the yards which have primitive or non-existent HSE standards. This article analyzes multidisciplinary scientific tools and techniques that can be used to make 'green' ship recycling economically attractive to ship owners without compromising HSE standards. Material flow analysis (MFA) has been found to be a suitable tool to analyze and plan the ship recycling process. This allows ship recycling yards to better manage waste and resources, thereby reducing costs. The material flow diagrams for a bulk carrier (case ship), showing the generic ship recycling process, are also developed and discussed. The analysis approach used in this article shows one way of introducing analytical tools into ship recycling planning and process assessment.
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