Heavy lift shipping and offshore transportation and installation contractor Jumbo, and marine biofuel company GoodFuels, announced a joint initiative to test marine Bio-Fuel Oil on an offshore decommissioning project. The partnership paves the way for a fossil fuel to renewable energy transition in the offshore support sector.
Oil major BP has agreed to form a 50:50 joint venture with Bunge, a US-based supplier of agriculture, food and ingredients, aiming to create a leading bioenergy company in Brazil, one of the world’s largest fastgrowing markets for biofuels.
During an interview with the SAFETY4SEA team at Nor-Shipping 2019, Jan Erik Rasanen, Head of New Technologies, Foreship, talked about the need of today’s ships to comply with upcoming legislations, providing an overview of the major highlights regarding alternative propulsion technologies for ships.
DNV GL published the revised ‘Assessment of selected alternative fuels and technologies in shipping’, to provide decision support for investments in ships, for the following five to ten-year period. In the report, DNV GL has identified LNG, LPG, methanol, biofuel and hydrogen as the most promising solutions.
Wärtsilä formed Wärtsilä Biogas Solutions, as Wärtsilä Puregas Solutions has merged with Wärtsilä’s biogas liquefaction team. The latter is a unit focusing on liquefying upgraded biogas for end-customer use. Wärtsilä’s biogas upgrading plants use its in-house Puregas CA technology, a process that recovers more than 99.9% of the biomethane present in raw biogas.
Luxembourg-based Jan De Nul Group revealed its commitment to reduce CO₂ emissions by 15% a year during maintenance dredging works at the Nieuwpoort coastal marina and to include by 2020 a minimum requirement of 15% CO₂ reduction in 80% of maintenance dredging contracts in Flanders.
Japan Engine Corporation (J-ENG) announced that it will collaborate with Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) to begin the research and development of biofuel. The two parties will use a test engine as one of solutions to achieve decarbonization. This test engine is located in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Research & Innovation Center and various fuel tests can be performed.
Danish ferry operator DFDS is investing in the start-up company MASH Energy ApS that produces biofuel from agricultural waste, in order to develop a commercially viable alternative to fossil fuels, including testing on a DFDS ferry.
ExxonMobil took a Delayed Coker Unit into operation at its refinery in Antwerp at the start of April. The unit converts heavy, high-sulphur oil products into cleaner transport fuel like diesel and fuel oil for shipping. The new plant represents an investment of over 1 billion euros. The DCU has been created ahead of the new shipping regulations, which will come into force on 1 January 2020.
According to EIA, primary energy consumption in the US reached a record high of 101.3 quadrillion British thermal units in 2018, an increase of 4% from 2017 and 0.3% more than the previous record set in 2007. The increase in 2018 was the largest increase in energy consumption, in both absolute and percentage terms, since 2010.
