EMEA News
UECC Ship Takes on Liquefied Biogas Blend
Natural gas supplier Gasum has carried out its first ship-to-ship bunkering of a blend of LNG and liquefied biogas (LBG).
Gasum bunkered UECC's car carrier the M/V Auto Energy with the gas blend on December 16, the company said in a statement on its website.
The blend contained 10% LBG, with the remainder being LNG, and the bunkering operation was carried out by Gasum's barge the Coralius.
"We are very excited to see our first ship-to-ship bunkering with the blend of LNG and LBG go smoothly," Jacob Granqvist, maritime sales director at Gasum, said in the statement.
"We can now perform ship-to-ship bunkering with different blends of LNG and LBG which will open new possibilities for our clients as well as for us to go forward in decarbonizing maritime transport."
Take-up of LNG as an alternative bunker fuel has surged in recent years. Sales at Rotterdam totalled 139,686 m3 in the first three quarters of the year, almost triple the level seen in the same period a year earlier.
While LNG bunkering combined with energy efficiency measures should be able to deliver the shipping industry's decarbonisation targets for 2030, it will not be compatible with the 2050 target of halving GHG emissions from 2008's levels. The use of LBG and synthetic natural gas produced using renewable power in blends with LNG may be enough to reach those targets, but the supply of these types of gas remains uncertain.
