Carbon neutral towage

DP World-owned Unifeeder is fast-tracking its green agenda by deploying a carbon neutral towage service on London’s River Thames.

The Ecotow service, developed by towage operator Svitzer, has seen its whole fleet of ten towage tugs converted from marine fuel oil to sustainable Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO), which reduces towage CO2 emissions by approximately 90%.

“This is a great example of what can be achieved using new fuel technology and we are proud to be deploying this innovative service to reduce carbon emissions,” said Michael Bonde, chief operations officer for network & operations at Unifeeder.

Carbon reduction

Unifeeder will initially deploy Svitzer’s Ecotow service in London for all vessels which require towage services on the River Thames. Unifeeder has approximately 100 vessel assists in London annually.

“Using Svitzer’s Ecotow service complements our environmental initiatives across Europe, such as our investment in more efficient rail and barge inland services, as well as our ongoing sustainability ambitions at our European terminals,” Mr Bonde said.

This latest development follows last year’s launch of Unifeeder’s Actual Emission Tracker, a tool that allows for users to calculate greenhouse gas emissions at the specific teu level, providing companies with further insight into the carbon impact of their activity.

The Ecotow product exclusively uses sustainable second-generation biofuels, which are fuels produced from waste material such as used cooking oil and are certified by ISSC or RSB.

Relative to marine diesel, these biofuels reduce carbon emissions by 100% on a tank-to-wake basis and approximately 90% on a well-to-tank basis.