Container ships begin biofuel trials in Singapore

CMA CGM along with Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has started biofuel bunkering in Singapore as part of its global trial to scale-up the wider adoption of the clean energy.

Its 10,640 teu vessel, APL Paris, was the first of the group’s vessels on trial to be bunkered with biofuel in the city-state.

Ship-to-containership biofuel bunkering was conducted alongside simultaneous container loading and discharging operations before the vessel plies the Asia-South America rotation of the Pacific East Coast 2 service.

CMA CGM’s six-month global trial will involve up to 32 container ships running on different blends of biofuel to measure CO2 and NOx emissions in order to obtain a trend analysis, which will be shared with the respective flag administration including MPA.

Some of these vessels will be fuelled in Singapore with B24 biofuel, which comprises 24% used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME) in the advanced biofuel blended with conventional fuels.

Ranging from ship sizes between 2,200 and 10,640 teu, these vessels on trial will serve several trade lanes including Asia-South America, Asia-Africa, Asia-Oceania, Asia-Mediterranean, North Europe–Oceania and North Europe-North America.

“This global biofuel trial and bunkering in Singapore advances CMA CGM’s energy transition, paving the way for biofuel to scale up as one of the solutions to decarbonise shipping. With the use of biofuels being assessed over multiple key tradelanes and onboard ships of various sizes, we shall gather a comprehensive data set to verify the biofuel’s performance as a marine fuel and gain insights into facilitating a wider adoption of biofuel as a clean fuel,” said Stéphane Courquin, CEO of CMA CGM Asia Pacific.

Source: https://biofuels-news.com