Advancing its decarbonisation efforts, Belgium-based Euro Marine Logistics (EML) began sea trials in April operating the Singapore-flag pure car truck carrier (PCTC) City of Oslo on biofuel
A wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), EML signed a deal for marine biofuel supply with Netherlands-based GoodFuels. Using the bunker vessel TMS Maria Deymann, the car carrier was bunkered with 370 tonnes of biofuel at the Dutch port of Flushing.
Owned by Gram Car Carriers and managed by OSM Ship Management, 2010-built, 140-m City of Oslo has a carrying capacity of 2,000 cars.
The GoodFuels’ biofuel can be used on vessels without changing engine specifications, which has the potential to become sustainable alternative fuel.
As an environmental frontrunner, GoodFuels maintains strict sustainability criteria for the feedstocks used in its biofuels. This means all the feedstocks sourced to produce GoodFuels’ marine biofuels cannot compete with food production or cause deforestation. GoodFuels only works with renewable feedstocks that are labelled as pure waste and residue and cannot be used for any higher quality application or recycling.
Across the entire value chain from well-to-exhaust, GoodFuels’ biofuels will reduce City of Oslo’s carbon emissions by between 80% to 90% compared with fossil fuel equivalents, according to EML.
Parent company MOL believes this initiative is an effective way to achieve low-carbon shipments as shipping transitions to a decarbonised future and is in line with the group’s new environmental strategy, Environmental Vision 2.1, announced on 18 June.
Commenting on the announcement, MOL car carrier division general manager Koichi Hirata said “MOL Group’s environmental vision aims to achieve sustainable net-zero GHG emissions for the entire MOL Group by 2050, and this sustainable biofuel trial marks a positive step forward for MOL’s sustainability initiatives. We are committed to delivering decarbonisation in maritime transportation and aspire to meet customers’ requirements through reducing the carbon footprint in our logistics supply chain.“
GoodFuels chief commercial officer Isabel Welten said “We want to collaborate with sustainability movers to continue driving shipping’s decarbonisation journey with our advanced, sustainable biofuels.”
Biofuels are considered to be carbon neutral because the CO2 absorbed by the source of the biomass is equal to the CO2 released when the fuel is burned. They are certified as sustainable fuels under international standards set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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