GoodFuels: Shipping has increased appetite for low-carbon solutions

As Mr. van Haeringen said, despite lockdown, GoodFuels trebled its volumes last year, which can be considered as a testament to the industry’s appetite for low-carbon solutions.

Talking about the benefits that biofuels present for shipping, Mr. van Haeringen explains that the big advantage is that shipping does not have to make any amendments to existing vessels, or to the fuel infrastructure, as these fuels can be implemented right away. He also added however that:

There are quite some options currently, but they all need some time before they are really implemented

As for biofuels’ supply, GoodFuels’ commercial manager explained that “there is a huge demand across the globe, especially in Singapore and Asia Pacific, but also in the US and the Nordics there’s a lot of supply.”

During the 2022 GREEN4SEA Forum, Bill Stamatopoulos, Business Development Manager, VeriFuel, gave an overview of the benefits and challenges of biofuels in the marine sector, emphasizing that they are an indispensable stepping-stone towards decarbonization.

As they said, until biofuel use becomes widespread, it would be difficult to achieve a competitive cost; hence there is need for price incentives and logistics development. Technical and operational challenges (long term storage, corrosion risk for B80-B100, microbial growth risk) are both known and manageable.

Other challenges relate to the different accounting principles (IMO/EU), competition from aviation and there are no clear results with regards to Nox emissions.

In order biofuel to move beyond the trial phase and scale up, there is need from support from governments, commitment of volume for the suppliers to secure feedstocks and an ISO specification for high blend biofuels (currently in progress).

Though may never be the dominant fuel, biofuels are an indispensable stepping stone on the path to decarbonization.