21 February 2023 (Lloyd's List) - TRIALS conducted by the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation on two supply chains of biofuel blends for vessel bunkering have been successfully completed. The trials, involving five vessels and approximately 4,700 tonnes of sustainable biofuel blends, were held from October 31 last year to February 15, according to a statement.
They involved tracing biofuels from their production origin to Singapore, where the fuels were blended and bunkered. Laboratory testing of the fuels continued until they were consumed on board, the GCMD said.
“The lack of assurance on the quality, quantity and emissions abatement of biofuels is a pain point we identified from interviewing more than 100 industry stakeholders,” said Sanjay Kuttan, the centre’s chief technology officer.
“These trials were curated to address this gap. In developing a framework to provide transparency and bolster the integrity of the biofuels supply chain, we hope to increase user confidence and decrease the barrier for wider adoption.”
The full pilot involved 19 industry partners, with 13 vessels spanning the container, tanker and bulker segments bunkering in Singapore and Rotterdam.
The completed trials represent two of the five supply chains in the full pilot, which aims to establish an assurance framework for the supply chain of sustainable biofuels.
“Through these trials, we have gained a better appreciation of the complexities of real world operations,” said Prapisala Thepsithar, the centre’s director of projects.
“We have learned the hard lesson that not all tracing techniques are directly applicable for tracing sustainable biofuels as they stand, and we are currently undertaking efforts to refine their deployment.”
Two sustainable biofuel blends were used in the trials. The first fuel blend involved a substance called used cooking oil methyl ester, known as UCOME, a type of fatty acid methyl ester. This was blended with very low sulphur fuel oil.
The second fuel blend involved UCOME blended with high sulphur fuel oil.
The UCOME used in both biofuel blends was produced from residue or feedstocks labelled 100% waste and was certified according to International Sustainability and Carbon Certification standards.
In the first supply chain, Chevron provided B24 VLSFO (24% biofuel blend) to CMA CGM Maupassant and MOL Endowment, a vessel operated by Ocean Network Express.
Additionally, Chevron bunkered B20 high sulphur fuel oil (20% biofuel blend) in its own Singapore Voyager and in crude oil tanker Elizabeth I.A., which is owned by Angelicoussis Group and managed by its oil tanker shipping unit, Maran Tankers Shipmanagement.
In a separate supply chain, TotalEnergies Marine Fuels provided B24 VLSFO to Lycaste Peace, which is owned by NYK and chartered to Astomos Energy Corp.
The supply chain trials were undertaken under business-as-usual conditions. Individual fuel purchasers nominated their fuel suppliers of choice and bunkering took place with vessels on commercial routes.
The role of the decarbonisation centre was to bring together marine fuel purchasers and suppliers and balance the needs of the stakeholders, vessel schedules, equipment and asset availability.
To ensure the integrity of the supply chain for biofuels and biofuel blends from end-to-end, it deployed a range of tracing techniques.
These included dosing with physical tracers, fingerprinting and deploying a lock-and-seal methodology, all of which were complemented with laboratory testing and analyses at numerous pre-determined points from fuel production to consumption.
The trials also involved the collection of shipboard samples and data along voyages in order that emissions could be appropriately quantified.
With the data collected from the completed trials and additional data to be collected from the other three supply chains, the GCMD is working with the Boston Consulting Group to develop a framework for greenhouse gas accounting. It will also try to find a way of conducting a cost-benefit analysis of using biofuels.
