ONE claims success in fourth biofuel trial
Japanese container line, Ocean Network Express (ONE), with stakeholders K Line, Mitsui OSK Lines, and Nippon Yusen Kaisha, has completed successful trials of biofuel on board the 4,803 TEU container ship, MOL Endowment, built in 2007. It is the fourth biofuel trial to have concluded well.
The 20-day fuel test in January was carried out as part of a Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) pilot project to establish a quality, quantity, and greenhouse gas abatement assurance framework for drop-in biofuels. A total of 992 tonnes of marine biofuel was bunkered on board the MOL Endowment in Singapore.
The vessel, deployed on ONE’s Japan Straits Malaysia (JSM) service, used the biofuel on a 20-day voyage from Kobe in Japan, past Keelung, Hong Kong, and thence to South East Asia. The last of the biofuel was consumed on the ship’s return voyage to Japan from Port Klang, ONE said.
The B24 fuel, supplied by Chevron, was a blend of certified used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME) and very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO). To address the GCMD assurance requirements, the fuel was laced with a physical tracer and tested repeatedly in samplings across its supply chain. Subsequent laboratory tests and data will now be used by GCMD as inputs in developing the assurance framework.
The fuel trial also involved a step forward in the digitalisation of bunker operations. The biofuel transaction was carried out via the Singapore Trade Data Exchange, a secure digital data-sharing platform for supply chain partners. Documents were also exchanged using the platform.
Jeremy Nixon, CEO of ONE, commented: "The maritime industry has many interconnected players, and collaboration is key in moving our decarbonisation ambitions forward. It is encouraging to see the various partners at different points of the supply chain come together in this biofuel trial for the common goal of a better, more sustainable future. At ONE, digitisation and decarbonisation are some of our top business priorities. This fourth biofuel trial marks a step forward in our goal to achieve net-zero by 2050."
