The car manufacturer BMW Group joined forces with short sea shipowner UECC and the GoodShipping Program in trials where BFO is being tested on UECC’s 140m, 2,080-vehicle carrier Autosky, aiming to decarbonize the industry.
Accordingly, the GoodShipping Program requires the industry to reduce its CO2 emissions. To better explain, the BFO – based on cooking oil – being used for this trial was supplied by GoodFuels.
Thus, in collaboration with BMW, the company will be able to achieve a 80-90% reduction for these shipments, totaling more than 400 tons of carbon.
Anniek Sluis, Growth Captain at The GoodShipping Program commented that
Transportation logistics have a huge carbon impact, so the leadership shown by BMW Group to proactively take steps to decarbonize – and recognize that solutions are available – should act as a call for others in the sector to join us on this journey.
The partners began the testing of BFO with the first delivery of biofuel to the Autosky in the Port of Rotterdam during March. The trial is expected to continue through July 2020, while the vessel will be operating between Zeebrugge, Belgium, and Santander, Spain.
The partners hope that the BMW’s part will play its role in enabling the continuation of biofuel deliveries to UECC after the trial period and will demonstrate that second-generation advanced biofuels can be scaled to meet this demand.
Daniel Gent, Energy and Sustainability Manager at UECC stated that
BMW Group’s participation to continue our trial on our ro-ro vessel M/V Autosky should, therefore, signal to the automotive sector that the means to decarbonize are readily available and that our vessels are equipped to meet this most important of challenges for the shipping industry.
Concluding, a recent research by University of Manchester highlighted that the shipping industry must focus on reducing the emissions from existing ships rather than wait for low-carbon vessels to enter its fleet.