MPA frames provisions for standard national quality marine biofuels

Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) has developed a provisional national quality standard for marine biofuels, as well as a framework laying down conditions for biofuel supply for licensed bunker fuel suppliers.

This standard is necessary and timely given that all marine fuels supplied in Singapore need to meet International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 8217 standards. But it is still under revision to include additional requirements for blends of distillate and residual fuel oils with fatty acid methyl ester(s), senior minister of state for transport Chee Hong Tat said at the Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition (Sibcon) on 5 October.

The standard was developed together with the industry, academia and relevant government organisations under a national standardisation programme overseen by government agency Enterprise Singapore.

The framework stating conditions for the supply of biofuels for licensed bunker suppliers was put in place to support trials conducted by vessels, Chee said. Singapore has so far supplied about 70,000t of biofuels to ocean-going vessels across more than 40 biofuel bunkering operations, he added.

The conditions for biofuel supply include a requirement for licensed bunker suppliers to ensure that the mass flow meter (MFM) installed on a bunker craft is intended for biofuel measurement with a measurement uncertainty at not more than 0.5pc, as well as a restriction against blending on board a bunker craft within the port of Singapore, according to the MPA.

The framework comes after the MPA at the start of 2017 required bunker fuels within the country’s waters to be delivered using MFMs, which are designed to give more accurate readings of the volumes transferred from sellers to buyers.

Singapore will focus on full electrification and use of biofuels for local harbour craft in port waters In order to reach net zero emissions by 2050. A compatibility study on various biofuel types and percentage blends for harbour craft is currently under way, with findings expected later this year, Chee said.

Apart from biofuels, Singapore is also looking at LNG, methanol, ammonia and hydrogen derived from renewables and its carriers as part of a multi-fuel future.