Greentech company Sulnox on Tuesday (22 September) announced the signing of a four-year supply agreement with Spring Marine Management (Spring Marine), a Greek ship management company and long-standing customer of Sulnox.

The agreement covers the supply of Sulnox Eco™ for use across at least 34 vessels and approximately 600,000 litres of product over the contract term – an increase of approximately 70,000 litres of Sulnox per annum from current levels reflecting planned fleet expansion and larger vessels consuming more fuel. 

In addition, Spring Marine will make a strategic investment of up to GBP 1,100,000 (USD 1.5 million) in Sulnox through the subscription for up to 2,750,000 new ordinary shares of 2 pence each (Ordinary Shares) at a price of 40 pence per Ordinary Share.

Spring Marine’s decision to invest in Sulnox alongside its supply commitment is a clear endorsement of the Sulnox Eco product and the growth prospects of the Company.

Spring Marine operates a fleet of tankers and bulk carriers and first introduced Sulnox Eco on a number of its vessels in 2023. Extensive operation using Coriolis mass flow meters, torque meters and engine performance monitoring systems has demonstrated consistent fuel savings averaging approximately 5%, together with reductions in specific fuel oil consumption (SFOC) and improved engine efficiency.

Spring Marine has also reported operational and maintenance benefits from the use of Sulnox Eco, including cleaner combustion components and injectors, reduced carbon build-up, minimal sludge generation and consistently cleaner exhaust emissions with no visible black smoke.

The agreement provides Sulnox with long-term contracted demand from an established customer and further validates the sustained benefits of Sulnox Eco in real-world maritime operations. 

The Board expects the agreement to generate significant incremental revenue for Sulnox and further strengthens the Company’s presence within the important Greek shipping market.

Captain George Chondronikolas, General Manager of Spring Marine, said: “We have now been using Sulnox Eco for three years and have seen consistent and measurable benefits across our operations. The fuel savings are important, but we have also seen meaningful improvements in engine cleanliness, efficiency and emissions performance.

“Our decision to enter into a four-year supply agreement reflects our confidence in the product and the results it continues to deliver. By also committing to invest in Sulnox, we are pleased to strengthen our relationship further and participate in the Company’s growth as adoption of its technology expands across global industry.”

Ben Richardson, CEO of Sulnox, said: “Spring Marine is another marquee customer embracing shipping’s inevitable decarbonisation agenda and using sophisticated vessel telemetry to demonstrate the effectiveness of Sulnox Eco. The results achieved across its fleet provide compelling real-world evidence of the fuel savings, emissions reductions and cleaner engine performance our technology can deliver.

Deciding to become a Sulnox shareholder as well as a long-term customer represents a powerful further endorsement of our product and strategy. We are delighted to deepen our relationship with one of Greece’s most respected ship managers as it continues to grow and develop its fleet.”

Photo credit: Scott Graham
Published: 23 September, 2026

A technical talk titled The Role of Innospec Additives in Supporting Decarbonization in the Marine Sector organised by The Joint Branch of RINA and IMarEST (Singapore) and sponsored by Innospec was held at Club@52 on Friday (25 July).

Max Fok, China & Singapore Marine Sales Manager and Market Specialist at Innospec, focused on the role of fuel additives in the shipping industry, addressing decarbonisation, sludge reduction, and fuel stability in his presentation.

He detailed the benefits of Innospec’s Octamar BT-25, a heavy fuel dispersant, stabiliser, and combustion improver which offers up to 60% sludge reduction.

“Thanks to IMO 2020, many shipping companies got to know additives more through the bunker tank cleaning period,” explained Mr Fok.

“Octamar BT-25 is our pioneering product specialising in sludge reduction and tank cleaning. It is so effective, IMO mentioned in their circulars that this additive can be used as a marine fuel tank cleaning option.”

He shared a case study to show the sludge reduction properties of Octamar BT-25.

“Our product offers up to 60% sludge reduction; in this case study we recorded a 46% decrease in sludge which is equivalent to 0.5% of Specific Fuel Oil Consumption (SFOC) improvement through stability alone,” he said.

“You can see the sludge produced for the base fuel without additives. For example, tank one is producing 0.25 m³ of sludge per day, and tank two is giving 0.4 m³ e per day. But with our additive, the sludge produced on tank three is less than 0.15 m³ per day.”

Moving forward, Mr Fok noted shipping’s decarbonisation has resulted in the increasing use of bio variants for Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) material as bunker fuel.

This development has resulted in different fuel behaviour of bio-VLSFO bunker stems due to varying feedstocks. Further, the situation could be even made worse due to suboptimal storage conditions.

“Fuel additives help maintain the fuel stability and prolonged storage of bio bunker fuel by eliminating microbial growth to keep the fuel system clean while improving combustion efficiency and offering fuel savings,” shared Mr Fok.

“So, using additives for biofuel can also give you a peace of mind on your expensive asset.”

Photo credit: Innospec
Published: 11 August 2025

International fuel additives company Infineum recently published an article on its Insight website on data from its combustion improver sea trials that demonstrate emissions and efficiency improvements along with a number of additional benefits these additives can deliver:

Ship operators are using fuel additives as a cost-effective way to help reduce fuel consumption as they work to cut running costs and emissions. But, their value goes way beyond these well-recognised attributes. In this article, Adrian Bourdeaux, Marine Fuels Technology Manager, shares the findings of recent evaluations at sea, carried out in a range of vessel types. These data not only confirm the emissions and efficiency improvement fuel additives can deliver to marine applications but also show how they can keep hardware clean and improve scrubber performance.

The maritime industry is working towards a net zero emissions future by 2050, where alternative fuels such as methanol, ammonia and hydrogen will be more widely used. However, in the transition period, conventional hydrocarbon fuels will continue to be the dominant marine fuel. To remain compliant with International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations and to meet IMO net zero aspirations, while also cutting costs, ship operators and owners need to reduce emissions and improve efficiency today. These were some of the key drivers that prompted Infineum to develop novel combustion improver fuel additive technology.

Initially, our technologists put a significant amount of effort into static engine, no-harms, and field proof of concept testing – you can read more about the results here. This article goes on to describe how the results of this highly controlled development program have been replicated across multiple vessel and engine types and sizes in the last 18 months. In addition, it shows how this extensive testing has uncovered a number of other benefits combustion improver additives can deliver.

In our first trial, despite the adverse weather conditions encountered throughout the additised portion of the trial, we achieved a 1% specific fuel oil consumption (SFOC) saving and reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulphur oxides (SOx) by 4% and 12% respectively.

Our technology has received the first ever Lloyd’s Register Fuel Additive Statement of Fact for improved SFOC, reduced NOx, and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions.

To some readers a 1% fuel efficiency gain might not sound like a huge improvement. But, as an example, it would mean a single vessel consuming 100 MT of fuel per day could gain a net annual saving of some $3 to 4 million*.

Encouraged by this strong performance, we have completed a series of successful field evaluations across a wide range of vessel types, including cruise liners, container ships, and bulk carriers. Building on this foundation, the technology is now being adopted more broadly, with several ongoing commercial deployments and new collaborations underway. Many of these initiatives are being driven by the additional operational and environmental benefits that are now consistently being demonstrated in real-world applications.

Infineum works hard to ensure that each field evaluation is as operationally controlled as possible, maintaining consistent speed, load, and other key parameters between baseline and additised phases. While each field evaluation differs in terms of vessel type, engine configuration, fuel quality, and operating environment, this variability has proven valuable. It demonstrates that, across a wide range of real-world conditions, we consistently observe improvements in SFOC.

In all our various sea trials the improved combustion has helped to reduce specific fuel oil consumption by between 1 and 3%.

Both our technical teams and our sea trial partners have been really pleased with the results we have obtained. Why? Because not only have our additives provided the expected fuel efficiency improvements but also they have delivered a number of other valuable benefits.

Note: The full article by Infineum can be read here. 

Photo credit: Venti Views on Unsplash
Published: 1 August, 2025