Svitzer bets on biofuel for UK port towage

The decision to scale up biofuel use across the London fleet follows the successful completion of the trial on board 2005-built Svitzer Intrepid.

Svitzer considers HVO a crucial first step in the roadmap towards a carbon-neutral towage sector which is increasingly being driven by customer demands to reduce the environmental footprint of shipping in ports.

Svitzer does not intent to stop with the London fleet conversion and plans to expand the Ecotow offering to more of Svitzer’s global operations.

Head of Ecotow Sven Lumber said this drive to carbon neutrality needs support from shipping companies and ports. “It is only sensible that we look to scale up the use of biofuel at the right time, in line with helping our customers to navigate their decarbonisation trajectories,” he said.

“The transition to wider adoption of alternative fuels in towage will ultimately happen faster if customers are accepting of the technology and understand the cost/benefit balance, so we remain committed to testing solutions that will work for them.”

The Ecotow product exclusively uses sustainable second-generation biofuels. These fuels are produced using waste material such as used cooking oil as feedstocks and are certified by International Ship Security Certificate or the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.

Svitzer said, relative to marine diesel, these biofuels reduce carbon emissions by 100% on a tank-to-wake basis and about 90% on a well-to-wake basis.

It is not the first tug operator to use biofuels on the River Thames to minimise its carbon footprint.

Cory has already switched its fleet of tugs to run on HVO biofuel, following successful trials that resulted in a reduction of net CO₂ emissions by 90%.

It runs five tugs on biofuels to transport non-recyclable waste on barges via riverside transfer stations in Wandsworth, Battersea, the City of London and Tower Hamlets.