EMEA News
Danish Project Finds Marine Biofuel Cuts Black Carbon Emissions by Up To 81%
Marine biofuels can reduce ships' black carbon emissions by up to 81% compared with MGO, according to data from Denmark's CLEANSHIP research project.
The data were collected during normal operations on Falstria Swan, a tanker operated by Danish shipping company Uni-Tankers A/S, CLEANSHIP said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.
Measurements were carried out using an onboard black carbon sensor developed by Denmark-based maritime emissions specialist Green Instruments in collaboration with the Danish Technological Institute.
"We expected that biofuel would lead to cleaner combustion, but the magnitude of the reduction – especially at lower engine loads – is a very positive surprise," Simon Martin Spangenberg Bastrup, consultant at the Danish Technological Institute, said.
"This demonstrates that biodiesel can reduce not only net CO2, but also Black Carbon, which is highly significant for the shipping sector's total climate footprint," he added.
"The latest real-world sailing data on biodiesel (B100) gives us a clear picture of both the black carbon footprint and actual CO2 emissions," Troels Reppien, Technical Director at Uni-Tankers, said.
The findings have been submitted to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and are due to be considered at its PPR sub-committee meeting in February.
Project CLEANSHIP is a Danish research initiative led by the Danish Technological Institute in partnership with Uni-Tankers, Green Instruments, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, Danish Shipping and Danske Maritime, and is supported by funding from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
