ODuring the launch of this pilot project, Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of GCMD, said that “By facilitating and creating an optimized supply chain for green fuels, this pilot project will help shape national and international biofuel bunkering standards and reduce barriers to their wider adoption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. emissions (GHG) from a life cycle perspective.

The vessels in this pilot project are all equipped with two-stroke engines from MAN ES. In response to his participation in this pilot project, Bjarne Foldager, Senior Vice President and Head of Two Stroke Business, said:

At MAN Energy Solutions, we believe that several solutions are needed to decarbonize shipping, but all solutions must be verified and tested for scalability. This is best done in partnerships aligning different actors in projects like this where we can share knowledge and develop transition strategies together.

GCMD is taking a bottom-up approach by convening like-minded partners across the maritime industry to participate in this pilot project. In total, shipowners, charterers and operators participating in this pilot project represent approximately 2,300 vessels in the container, tanker and bulk carrier segments, and are responsible for transporting 8.4 million TEUs or 80, 6 million dwt worldwide.

With 12 vessels calling at three ports on three continents, lessons learned from these route-based pilots will support the Green Corridors Framework that was presented by the Clydebank Declaration at COP26 in October 2021, to which 24 states are signatories. , including Singapore and the Netherlands. and the United States where the bunker ports for this pilot project reside.

Targeting the Complex Green Fuels Supply Chain

The first of its kind in terms of scope and complexity, the pilot aims to optimize the entire bunker fuel supply chain based on lessons learned from onboard trials involving biofuels. Designed through the lens of the shipowner, piloting will begin with fuel blends involving existing biofuels, such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) blended with fuel oil Very Low Sulfur Fuel (VLSFO), High Sulfur Fuel (HSFO) or Marine Gas Oil (MGO) in blends of up to 30% biofuel (B30).

A variety of biofuels and biofuel blends have already been successfully tested, but this comprehensive pilot project can help remove remaining uncertainties about how these fuels perform in practice by gaining in-depth operational experience from end-users with products involving FAME and HVO, and hopefully crude algal oil as well.

commented Unni Einemo, director of the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA).

Using BunkerTrace’s digital and synthetic DNA tracing products to track marine fuels from production to vessel propulsion, the pilot will validate the authenticity of sustainable biofuels through molecular verification tests performed on fuel samples which are collected at many identified points along the supply chain.

Therefore, the pilot project will address the traceability of instant biofuels from production, distribution, transport, storage and bunkering to application on board ships, providing end-to-end transparency of the supply chain. supply.

The complexity of the pilot is added to the coordination of the sailing schedules of the participating ships. Aggregating the demand for biofuels in ports will result in cost savings for shipowners and fuel purchases through optimized use of shoreside storage facilities and bunker vessels and will facilitate assessments of fuel reduction. GHG emissions on a well to wake basis from individual vessels and across fleets.

In addition, testing these fuel blends on the container, tanker and bulk carrier segments traveling on fixed routes and tramp and bunker in the ports of Singapore, Rotterdam and Houston under normal conditions will demonstrate the compatibility and stability of these biofuels under real conditions. operating environments, thereby enhancing the overall robustness of the assurance framework.

Call for raw algal oil supply

In an effort to further accelerate the adoption of biofuels as a near-term measure to reduce GHG emissions, GCMD will leverage this project to be the first to test and evaluate the use of crude algal oil ( CAO) as marine fuel.

CAO is a third-generation biofuel that promises a significantly reduced carbon footprint, but unlike HVO and FAME, its usefulness has not been tested nor its supply chain established.