EMEA News
Virgin Voyages Completes First Biofuel Bunker Trial
Cruise line Virgin Voyages has completed its first trial of a biofuel bunker blend.
The company bunkered a B20 blend consisting of 20% used cooking oil blended with fuel oil at Barcelona on September 24, it said in a press release on Thursday, The vessel testing the fuel was the Valiant Lady.
The trial was completed on October 16, with the company's staff having monitored fuel and engine performance during bunkering, storage and use to test it against operational expectations.
"There are a variety of blended fuel options that are becoming available," Jill Stoneberg, senior director of social impact and sustainability at Virgin Voyages, said in the statement.
"We were especially interested in testing the performance of sustainable fuel mixed with heavy fuel oil.
"The latter makes up a significant portion of the industry's fuel demand and therefore, is one of the greatest opportunities for transitioning to lower-carbon fuel solutions.
"Sustainable, bio-based fuels can work with our existing engines today, and we could transition to these cleaner fuels now if they were more readily available and affordable."
Demand for biofuel bunker blends is increasing as shipowners take them on as a drop-in replacement for conventional fuels with a lower carbon footprint, allowing them to reduce GHG emissions without investing in new ships capable of running on other alternative fuels.
