Stena Bulk Tests One Hundred Percent Biofuel in Tanker

Stena Bulk is preparing to test run an MR tanker on 100 percent biofuel.
 
The fuel is the MR1-100 bio-fuel oil, produced from used cooking oil and supplied by GoodFuels in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It has been bunkered onto the Stena Immortal and will be used to power the main engine in normal operations. 

Biofuels are compatible with regular fuels but produced from biomass or biowaste instead of fossil oil. While there are many kinds of biofuel, Stena Bulk is only using second generation fuel, meaning it is based on waste and thereby do not compete with food production.
 
The reduction of CO2  by using this particular biofuel is around 83 percent. In this trial, the company will reduce emissions by 690mt. This figure is calculated from a life cycle perspective, i.e. including production and distribution of the fuel. Apart from contributing to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the fuel also emits significantly lower levels of SOx than regular compliant fuels.

“By doing this test we want to contribute to push the industry and pave way towards more sustainable shipping,” says Erik Hånell, President and CEO Stena Bulk. “We want to be able to offer our customers additional options with less environmental impact in the future and by conducting the trial in normal operations we want to show that being sustainable doesn't have to interfere with core business.”

Some other shipping companies are currently testing biofuel blends. Hapag-Lloyd is operating one of its ships, the Montreal Express, with B20, a biofuel blend that consists of 80 percent low sulfur fuel and 20 percent biodiesel.

CMA CGM has also tested a fuel with a 20 percent biofuel component derived from cooking oil. Last year, the CMA CGM Group announced a partnership with Shell to supply tens of thousands of tons of marine biofuel to its fleet.