The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Freeport-based ships' waste processor has been approved for a $3m Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan that will quadruple the size of the Caribbean's first such facility.

Clean Marine Group, which was founded in 2017, will also receive $1.5m in counterpart funding from the government to help finance the expansion of a business model that aims to bring the shipping industry into compliance with international anti-pollution conventions.

The company, which has already conducted successful trials of its processes at the Grand Bahama Shipyard, is now aiming to extend its services to other maritime operators in The Bahamas and wider Caribbean by developing four acres it has leased from the Freeport Harbour Company.

The IDB, in project papers seen by Tribune Business, said its rationale for financing Clean Marine Group's project lay in the fact that it will benefit a country that relies heavily on the sea environment for the lifeblood of its economy - tourism and fisheries.

Praising Clean Marine Group for creating "an interesting business model" that has adapted cavitational technology for use in processing ships' waste, the IDB said: "They have obtained the license from the Grand Bahama Port Authority to operate, and will collect and process all kinds of liquid waste emitted by ships, including black water, grey water, black and grey water, oily water and sludge."

This, the multilateral lender added, will allowing ships that use Clean Marine Group's services to comply with MARPOL, which is known as the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, and regulations that have been in effect globally since 1973.

"Clean Marine Group currently operates a pilot MARPOL treatment facility in the Grand Bahama Shipyard, has undertaken successful trials in processing a variety of liquid marine wastes, and has passed proof of concept for providing MARPOL-compliant processing of those wastes," the IDB said.

"Clean Marine Group, having formed its initial alliance with the Grand Bahama Shipyard, proposes to now extend that alliance to other maritime-based entities throughout the Bahamas and the wider Caribbean, by developing out four acres of quayside land under lease from Freeport Harbor Company.

"The proposed IDB loan will co-finance the expansion of the port reception and treatment facility that will provide significant environmental and health benefits to the populations that reside in, or depend on, ocean-related activities for their well-being in the Bahamas, as well as the all other Caribbean countries that are affected by the improper disposal of marine waste and pollutants that are dumped into the ocean."

The project report added that Clean Marine Group's technology will break down oil and water emulsions, plus process contaminated water from ocean liners and cruise ships.

"With a capacity to process in excess of 50m gallons of waste from cruise ships and other commercial vessels every year, the facility will now be expanded to receive up to 200m gallons per annum," the IDB said.

Clean Marine Group was selected for the financing as one of five winners of the IDB's Blue-Tech Challenge, which was launched in September 2018 and closed on November 30 last year. It aimed to identify businesses that apply new technologies or solutions to facilitate the long-term sustainability of the ocean economy across the Caribbean.

"Despite The Bahamas and most neighbouring countries of the wider-Caribbean gaining access to MARPOL, the extremely high cost and complexity of building and operating a port reception facility to process liquid marine waste streams means that there are no adequate facilities throughout the wider- Caribbean, and so ships find it difficult to comply with the MARPOL regulations," the IDB paper said.

"While there are no concrete data on the volumes of marine wastes discharged into the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, one global study indicates that during the last decade illegal dumping and routine operations of vessels account for between 666,000 and 2.5m tons of hydrocarbons per year being improperly discharged from vessels into the ocean.

"The risk of discharge into the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea of pollutants, such as oil, noxious substances, sewage and garbage resulting from the normal operations of ships, poses a serious risk to the marine ecosystem and human health. Therefore, this has a significant impact on local populations that often rely on marine resources for their livelihoods."

The IDB added that due to "limited knowledge" among Caribbean governments over enforcing MARPOL, "the risk of discharge into the region's seas of oil, noxious liquid substances, sewage and garbage resulting from the normal operation of ships poses a serious risk to the ocean eco-system and human health".