Singapore-based Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) has concluded its final supply chain trial for marine biofuel blended with very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO).
In this final trial, BP provided 4,500t of a 30pc biofuel blend (B30) to Hapag-Lloyd for 19,870 twenty-foot equivalent unit container vessel TIHAMA. This resulted in 27pc fewer emissions compared with sailing on VLSFO alone, GCMD said.
The B30 was neat fatty acid methyl ester (Fame) from food waste blended at the port of Rotterdam. In neat, unblended form it represented 85.4pc fewer emissions than fossil marine fuel, with well-to-wake emissions of 13.74 gCO2e/MJ.
Advanced B30 Fame in a dob ARA range was assessed by Argus at $776.29/t on Wednesday, 17 July.
The trial results of 13 vessels that bunkered conventional marine fuels blended with Fame such as B24 and other blends found no significant degradation of the biofuel when used in a commercial setting, the GCMD reported last month.
The trial was initiated in July 2022, combining 18 industry stakeholders in the container, tanker and bulker segments bunkering between Singapore, the Netherlands and Houston under business-as-usual conditions.
Authentix, a tracer solutions provider, supplied and dosed the Fame with an organic-based tracer at the storage terminal, the first such deployment in a marine fuel supply chain. Fuel testing company Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) witnessed the operations at all stages, said GCMD.
GCMD will continue trialling biofuels with Japanese shipping firm NYK Line, it said in May, with continuous use of B24 over six months.
