Biofuel demo trials

The companies, including NYK and Astomos, are conducting demonstration trials with an investment scale of approximately US$18 million.

“By facilitating and creating an optimised drop-in green fuels supply chain, this pilot will help to shape national and international standards of biofuels bunkering and lower the barrier for their wider adoption to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a lifecycle perspective,” said Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of GCMD.

Biofuel supply chain

One of the objectives of the project is to establish transparency in the biofuel supply chain with the use of tracer technologies, so this project is characterised by the participation of shipping companies as consumers.

NYK and Astomos plan to supply biofuels to LPG carrier owned by NYK and chartered by Astomos for trial operation as part of the efforts of this project.

Specifically, the shipping companies will conduct a trial operation using biofuels and provide GCMD with data on their biofuel use. By facilitating and creating an optimised drop-in green fuels supply chain, this pilot will help to shape national and international standards of biofuels for the maritime industry and lower the barrier for their wider adoption to reduce GHG emissions from a lifecycle perspective.

Recent IMO decisions to eliminate the need to apply for waivers for using fuel blends with up to 30% biofuels (B30) for propulsion and to allow the use of B30 in accordance with MARPOL Annex VI, have lowered regulatory hurdles for adopting biofuels.

To this end, the outcome of this pilot aims to increase stakeholder confidence in the full value of the premium paid for such green fuels and further lower the barrier to wider adoption of biofuels in the maritime industry by addressing concerns on the integrity of the biofuels supply chain.

Altogether, the ship owners, charterers and operators participating in this pilot project represent approximately 2,300 vessels across the container, tanker and bulker segments and are responsible for transporting 8.4 million teu or 80.6 million DWT globally.

With 12 vessels bunkering at three ports across three continents, the learnings from these route-based pilots will support the green corridors framework that was put forth by the Clydebank Declaration at COP26 in October 2021, of which 24 states are signatories­ including Singapore, the Netherlands and the US where bunkering ports for this pilot project reside.

The GMCD was established in August 2021 by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and six industry partners.