Skangas Fuels Its First Ship with Liquefied Biogas

Skangas has supplied Furetank’s chemical/product tanker M/T Fure Vinga with liquefied biogas (LBG), representing the company’s first delivery of this renewable and environmentally friendly fuel to a marine firm. 

The fueling took place at the Port of Gothenburg, transferring the fuel directly from a tanker truck to the ship. The Swedish LBG was delivered to Furetank’s ship from Skangas’ parent company Gasum’s biogas facility in Lidköping.

The Fure Vinga was delivered from the shipyard in April this year and is one of two vessels in Furetank’s fleet powered by liquefied gas.

Together with partners, Furetank is building five further sister vessels to the Fure Vinga, all of which will be dual-fuel and can be powered by LBG when the fuel is available. The vessels will be trading in North Europe and will benefit from Skangas’ LNG supply network in the region, according to the company.

Further to the environmental benefits of using LNG instead of conventional bunker oils, LBG is also 100% renewable with no CO2 emissions. For running the engine, LBG has similar or better characteristics compared with LNG, Skangas said.

“Running vessels on liquefied natural gas is our contribution to a more environmentally friendly environment. We will, however, contribute by increasing the sustainability. Using liquefied biogas was a natural step in this direction,” Lars Höglund, CEO of Furetank, noted.

“No doubt LBG will be a clear option for us. It is proven by this operation that it can be available from our existing LNG supplier and not at least with the same quality as our current LNG fuel,” he added.

“This is the first time we are supplying LBG to a marine customer. However, it will not be the last. To be increasingly greener with the renewable biogas is possible because we use the same infrastructure that we’ve built throughout northern Europe. This means that LNG and LBG will continue to walk hand in hand as the availability of LBG on the market is on the rise,” Tommy Mattila, sales and marketing director in Skangas, commented.

Because the LNG and LBG mainly consist of methane gas, the existing LNG supply infrastructure can be used without any modifications. This means that the same trucks, ships, tanks and marine filling stations can be used for both products, as explained by the company.