New Platform to Help Suppliers Better Understand Future Bunker Fuels

The platform bring together several stakeholders. Image Credit: Alfa Laval / ShippingLab

Danish joint industry initiative ShippingLab says it intends to create a testing platform for potential future bunker fuels aimed at helping suppliers of sustainable marine fuels better understand the needs and requirements of the shipping industry.

The platform is envisaged as being open for existing and future test facilities both in Denmark and internationally.

One of the goals of the platform will be to identify fuels that not only meet the requisite technical requirements, but can also be produced in sufficient volumes.

One of the key barriers the marine industry faces on its path to decarbonization is identifying the future fuels that can be produced economically at a scale to replace today's roughly 250 million mt of current-generation oil bunker demand.

"The platform will facilitate a number of test and validation services for sustainable fuels in order to ensure that the required information within technical, regulatory, environmental and financial dimensions and demands is available to clarify if a potential sustainable fuel can become a product potentially traded in large volumes within the maritime industry," ShippingLab said in a written release.

"These services will be provided by existing test and validation facilities at either commercial or academic organizations. So, the sustainable fuel testing and validation platform should not be regarded as a new competitor on this market, but as a platform that links producers with the relevant facilities for providing the necessary data about their sustainable fuels."

ShippingLab names Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, Alfa Laval, MAN Energy Solutions, DS Norden, A.P. Møller – Mærsk and biofuel supplier MASH Energy among the validation platform's stakeholders.

"New sustainable fuels are needed, but in practice it is a great challenge to create a new product, and the partners in the project want to help make this easier," commented ShippingLab Chairman, Kjeld Dittmann.

"The joint forces of the partners will ease the clarification on various directions and solutions. The validation platform will facilitate a joint effort and reduce the likelihood of missing out on solutions with high potential environmental and costs impact."