Operation of Marine Exhaust Gas Scrubbing Equipment aboard the Great Lakes Self-Unloading Motor Vessel Lee A. Tregurtha

2018Final reportPDFTech ReportInland water transportationMarine diesel enginesDiesel engine exhaust gasesEvaporative emissionsDiesel fuelsResearch HubOhioUnited States. Department of Transportation. Maritime AdministrationThe Interlake Steamship CompanyUnited States. Department of Transportation. Maritime AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionThe Interlake Steamship Company is a privately held company headquartered near Cleveland, Ohio in Middleburg Heights. Interlake and is predecessor companies trace their history back more than 100 years on the Great Lakes. The Company, which employs about 400 people, owns and operates a fleet of eight (8) self-unloading bulk carrying ships on the Great Lakes. It manages and operates a ninth vessel. Interlake\u2019s ships range in size from 690 feet in length with a per trip capacity of 24,800 tons, to the largest ship on the Great Lakes at 1,013.5 feet in length with a per trip capacity of 68,000 tons. Interlake\u2019s modernized, state of the art ships carry over 20 million tons of bulk cargo throughout the Great Lakes annually. Those cargoes include iron ore that feeds steel mills throughout the Midwest, low-sulphur coal used by electric power generating plants throughout the region, limestone aggregates used by the construction industry, flux for steel mills, and grain for the milling industry. Interlake\u2019s customers rely on Interlake vessels to provide reliable and affordable transportation of raw materials.By virtue of its operation, Interlake\u2019s vessels trade exclusively in fresh water. Consequently, their useful life is decades longer than vessels operating in the corrosive salt water of the world\u2019s oceans. It is not uncommon for vessels operated on the Great Lakes to be more than fifty years old. The keel for Interlake\u2019s newest ship was laid in 1979, and its oldest ship \u2013 the M/V Lee A. Tregurtha which is the subject of this report \u2013 was built in 1942. In contrast, it would be rare to find a salt water vessel built in the 1970\u2019s that was still in service, and ships built in the 1980\u2019s are routinely being retired from service. As a consequence, freight rates on the Great Lakes have remained low because ships do not have to be replaced as often, and new ships are rarely built. However, hull longevity on the Great Lakes lends itself to the development of programs to renew vessels, and the Cooperative Agreement between MARAD and Interlake relates to the renewal and upgrading of the M/V Lee A. Tregurtha.93