Positive results from a three-year collaborative research project focused on marine biofuels suggest shipping can be set on a sustainable course.
GoodFuels Marine and tanker operator, NORDEN A/S, have worked closely together on trialing the ‘world’s first zero emission, ‘drop in’ Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)-equivalent marine biofuel’, which they say almost completely reduces ‘all carbon and sulphur emissions’. Other partners involved in testing the GoodFuels’ Bio-Fuel Oil (BFO) on vessels in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region were Royal Dutch Boskalis and Wärtsilä.
Dirk Kronemeijer, CEO, GoodFuels Marine, said: “We want to greatly thank NORDEN A/S for being a pioneer and for joining us as we take this crucial step towards developing a carbon-busting solution that is scalable, truly sustainable, technically compliant and – crucially – affordable. In our journey so far we have focused on realising the wide-scale use of bio-marine gas oil (MGO) equivalent biofuel, but for over three years we have been working day and night to develop our BFO solution.
“The importance of its arrival in the market is further underlined by the dual prospect of impending lower sulphur and carbon legislation. Bringing this to market now offers shipping a near-zero carbon and SOx alternative to HFO, and VLSFO – 0.5% blended fossil fuel – both of which will be prevalent in the market post-2020. From this point onwards we want to scale supply as fast as we can in order to actively contribute to the world’s 1.5 degree challenge.”
