UECC and Titan partner on bio-LNG bunkering operations

Norwegian roll-on/roll-off shipping line United European Car Carriers (UECC) and Dutch supplier of fuels Titan Clean Fuels (Titan) have decided to collaborate on a series of major liquefied biomethane (LBM) bunkering operations in the Port of Zeebrugge.

As informed, Titan plans to bunker ISCC-EU certified mass-balanced LBM, also known as bio-LNG, to all of UECC’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual fuel car carriers this month.

These pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) will use 100% LBM as part of UECC’s ‘Green Gas Month’, an initiative that supports its wider ‘Sail for Change’ sustainability program.

Three of the ships also feature battery hybrid technology to further enhance their environmental performance.
 
Due to the biomethane waste feedstock, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential from this clean fuel use is significant, according to UECC.

In ‘Green Gas Month’, the company calculates that well-to-wake emissions reductions will exceed 8,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
 
The GHG emissions reductions generated from these LBM bunkering operations will be available to UECC customers through a CO2 registry that was opened in January 2024.

This registry allows UECC to transfer the environmental benefits of clean fuel use to charterers in a transparent, traceable and independently verified manner across its entire supply chain, the company emphasized.

“Through the use of biomethane, ‘Green Gas Month’, and ‘Sail for Change’ more broadly, we are providing our customers with a great springboard to further their own decarbonisation strategies. With progressive automakers focusing on cleaner cars, we expect them to want to reduce their scope three emissions and ship those cars sustainably – which is what we can deliver in collaboration with Titan right now,” Daniel Gent, Energy & Sustainability Manager at UECC, commented.

“Tightening environmental regulations and emissions levies like the EU Emissions Trading System are also increasingly boosting the commercial rationale for using clean shipping services. The use of LBM as a marine fuel reduces UECC’s, and our customer’s exposure to the costs of emitting within the EU ETS, which will continue to ramp up quickly over the coming years.”

“We are pleased to be working with UECC on these major LBM bunkerings and hope these are the first of many more clean fuel operations with them. The mass balanced LBM via Fluxys’ LNG Terminal in Zeebrugge is a practical, realistic and cost-competitive way to use clean marine fuels today. And the UECC team has valued the flexibility that our fleet of strategically located LNG bunker vessels can offer,” Flip Dankelman, Trader at Titan, added.

Unlike other fuel pathways, LBM is frequently being introduced at scale today. Depending on the feedstock, LBM can achieve net-zero GHG emissions or even net-negative if the avoided emissions of waste are taken into account.

The next phase is the introduction of e-methane produced using renewable electricity and electrolysis. All of these molecules can be blended at any ratio and used in existing LNG infrastructure without adaptation.

“This clean fuel supply agreement and milestone on the LNG pathway is timely as activation of the European Union’s FuelEU Maritime regulation is imminent. The regulation, which will especially incentivise the use of renewable fuels of non-biological origin such as e-methane, will come into force on January 1st, 2025. It will be applicable to vessels over 5000 GT, 100% of emissions will be considered within the EU and 50% of them if one port in the voyage is outside the EU,” UECC concluded.

Recently, UECC revealed it is on track to exceed its goal of a 45% emissions reduction by 2030 after more than doubling biofuel usage across its fleet last year.

UECC boosted the use of ISCC-certified sustainable biofuel B100 on both owned and time-chartered ships to 14,000 metric tons last year, up from 6500 metric tons in 2022. The company achieved a total tank-to-wake emissions reduction of over 60,000 tons across its 14-vessel fleet in 2023, of which it is estimated that increased biofuel use accounted for 40,000 tons, with the remainder coming from LNG.

This was a near-250% increase on the emissions cut of 24,200 tons achieved in 2022.