Phi Earth and ABS Sign MOU at Singapore Maritime Week

[By: Phi Earth Technologies]

Phi Earth Technologies Pte. Ltd. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), a leading global maritime classification society and technical advisor. The MOU was signed by Theo Davies, CEO and Founder of Phi Earth, at the ABS booth during Singapore Maritime Week on April 22, 2026. The signing followed a presentation by Sean M. Holt, President International of Phi Earth, titled “Soil to Oil: Building Purpose-Built Biomass Feedstocks and Digital Twin Infrastructure for Marine Biofuels.”

The MOU establishes a technical collaboration to develop regenerative biomass systems as a credible, auditable input to the marine fuel supply chain. As the maritime sector works toward IMO decarbonization targets, scrutiny is shifting upstream toward how fuel inputs are produced, measured, and verified. This agreement is structured to address that gap directly.

Under the collaboration, ABS will provide technical guidance on frameworks for biomass provenance, traceability, and lifecycle carbon intensity assessment. The work connects upstream feedstock production with downstream fuel and industrial applications, allowing environmental performance to be evaluated across the full value chain.

Phi Earth contributes its biological infrastructure platform: purpose-built agroforestry systems, digital twin monitoring, and audit-ready MRV tools to produce scalable, traceable feedstocks for marine biofuel and industrial decarbonization. The partnership targets the gap between land-based biomass production and the technical assurance requirements of the maritime fuel market.

“The marine biofuel industry doesn’t have a demand problem. It has a supply chain problem. Shipowners and fuel buyers are ready to move, but the feedstock infrastructure they need simply isn’t there yet: no batch-level traceability, no unbroken chain of custody, no carbon intensity number that holds up under audit. That is the gap Phi Earth was built to close. This MOU with ABS is about building the assurance architecture that makes upstream biomass a legitimate, bankable input to the maritime fuel supply chain: traceable from the ground up, audit-ready at every node, and structured for the scale the IMO timeline demands. We believe the future of marine biofuels is won or lost upstream, and this is where we are building.” - Sean M. Holt, President International, Phi Earth Technologies

Holt is a former ABS Marine Surveyor and ISO Lead Auditor, and a long-running contributor to The Maritime Executive. His background in marine survey and digital twin frameworks informed the development of Phi Earth’s traceability and MRV architecture, which sits at the core of the ABS partnership. The collaboration will also explore industrial and circular carbon pathways, including biochar and bio-coke, where demand for solutions that deliver emissions reduction alongside durable carbon value is growing across heavy industry.