Quadrise Says Progress Developing its MSAR Emulsion Bunkers is "Excellent"

Quadrise says it has successfully manufactured a number of MSAR fuel batches using a range of residues.

Quadrise Fuels International plc (Quadrise) Friday said that it continues to "make excellent progress" with the development of its emulsion bunker fuel, Multiphase Superfine Atomized Residue (MSAR), and has successfully manufactured a number of fuel batches using a range of residues.

As Ship & Bunker reported in July, Quadrise said it had produced and delivered its first batch of its MSAR emulsion bunkers, which were being trialed in a Maersk Line vessel.

Since that time, Quadrise says the vessel has been burning MSAR while operating on its regular scheduled route outside of the European Emission Control Area (ECA), with positive feedback received so far from Maersk on the fuel's performance.

"During the remainder of the 'LONO' trial, all parties will continue to work hard to ensure that the schedules for MSAR production, bunkering and burning are closely co-ordinated, in order to minimise the overall time taken to deliver the 4,000 hours of MSAR fueling required for the LONO," said Quadrise.

"Based on the very positive performance to date and the nominated vessel's schedule over the coming months, we currently anticipate that an interim assessment will be possible in early 2017 and that the trial should be completed by the middle of 2017."

In August, Ship & Bunker reported that Quadrise had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to advance its production to combustion trial in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Quadrise says it has since been working with all parties to move the large-scale production to combustion trial ahead, and anticipates the trial to commence during 2017.

The company says that its next major milestone in relation to the project will be the entrance into definitive contracts for the delivery of the Company's MSAR manufacturing equipment, chemicals and services for the trial, which will likely occur in the first half of 2017, enabling definitive trial timelines to be confirmed.

"This has been a transformative year for Quadrise,  with substantial progress in our key trial projects in the marine and power markets," said Mike Kirk, Executive Chairman of Quadrise.

"In addition, we have continued to selectively build our resources to support these projects and our plans for the migration to commercial operations during 2017. We look forward to being able to report continued progress for the remainder of 2016 and 2017."

Last year, Quadrise announced that it had signed an agreement with the University of Surrey in Guildford, enabling the company to move its primary emulsion fuels research base from Sweden to the UK - a programme that the company said had made "good progress" since.