SULNOX, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BEN RICHARDSON TELLS TRADEWINDS MAGAZINE SIMPLICITY IS KEY TO TACKLING EMISSIONS

August, 2026 – London

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best in tackling shipping’s climate change issues, according to the boss of Idan Ofer-backed fuel-tech company Sulnox.

Ben Richardson, chief executive at the London-listed decarbonisation operation, said that for much of the past decade, the sector’s environmental agenda has been dominated by SOx, NOx and, increasingly, CO2.

Professor Steve Yim is the founding director of the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Health at Nanyang Technological University.

Billions have been invested in scrubbers, cleaner fuels and technologies designed to meet ever more demanding emissions regulations, he said.

But Richardson notes that particulate matter as moving steadily up the agenda.

This directly impacts local air quality and public health, particularly in ports and coastal communities, Richardson said.
The question is whether the industry is preparing to tackle particulate matter in the same way it has approached previous emissions challenges, or whether it needs to think differently, he said.

“Shipping has developed an understandable habit. Faced with a new environmental requirement, the default response is often to engineer a solution around the exhaust,” he added.
Scrubbers addressed sulphur, Richardson argued, just as selective catalytic reduction tackled NOx and alternative fuels promise lower carbon emissions.

“Each has an important role. But each has also required significant investment, additional equipment, operational complexity and, in many cases, major modifications to vessels and infrastructure,” he added.

Shipping has always solved difficult problems through engineering, but particulate matter may be different, he believes.

Prevention rather than cure should be key, Richardson said.

He turned to philosophy to back up his argument.

Occam’s Razor — the principle that, where several explanations or solutions exist, the simplest is often the best — has guided scientists and engineers for centuries, he added.
“Much of the current discussion around particulate matter still focuses on what happens after particulates have already been created. Can they be filtered? Captured? Separated?”

Even some of the more ambitious research into onboard carbon capture relies on increasingly sophisticated systems designed to remove emissions after combustion, Richardson said.
These technologies may ultimately find their place. But they all begin with the same assumption: that the pollutants will be produced in the first place, he said.

“Perhaps the more fundamental question is why we are creating them at all,” he said.
Combustion-derived particulate matter largely results from incomplete combustion, poor fuel atomisation, carbon agglomeration and inconsistent fuel quality, the CEO added.

“Improve the combustion process itself and fewer particulates are created from the outset. That is not a new idea. It is simply a different way of thinking about the problem,” he said.

Technologies that improve fuel stability, atomisation and combustion efficiency could reduce particulate formation without requiring extensive modifications to engines or vessels, Richardson added.

“Occam’s Razor reminds us that the simplest approach capable of solving a problem is often the one worth considering first,” he concluded.

“For particulate matter, perhaps the industry’s next step is not to become ever better at removing emissions after they have been created — but to become much better at preventing them in the first place.”