Using biofuel, UECC ship cut over 20 million kg of CO2 emissions

United European Car Carriers (UECC), a Norway-based provider of shortsea RoRo transportation, reported massive CO2 emissions cuts by using biofuel onboard one of its roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessels.

For almost one year, the company has been continuously testing biofuel on the 140-metre vehicle carrier Autosky.

“The results are striking; a reduction of over 20 million kilograms of CO2 emissions, an absolute reduction of more than 9,000 kilos of sulphur oxide emissions and a similarly total reduction in particulate matter,” the company revealed.

When putting the data into context, one can look at the carbon intensity of Autosky on a gram of CO2 per tonne-km basis:

• 2018:- 85.51 gCO2/tkm
• 2019:- 85.62 gCO2/tkm
• 2020:- 35.96 gCO2/tkm

As explained by UECC, this is a 58 per cent reduction in carbon intensity.

“Keep in mind that the Initial IMO GHG strategy aims to reduce carbon intensity by 40% by 2030 and you can see that UECC is really in front of this ambitious objective,” the transportation company pointed out.

A year ago, UECC and sustainable marine biofuel pioneer GoodFuels launched a joint trial of GoodFuels biofuel oil on Autosky. Following the three-month trial, the duo partnered with car manufacturer BMW Group to continue to test marine biofuel on the RoRo vessel.

“We have bunkered over 6,000 metric tonnes of biofuel in this period, exclusively supplied by GoodFuels,” UECC continued.

Specifically, the fuel itself has been derived from a variety of feedstocks, including processed used cooking oil. All of the biofuel UECC ship has consumed in the past 12 months has been sustainably sourced and has utilised waste and residues with no higher quality application available, the company added.

What is more, the switch to these biofuels required little to no technical modifications on the vessel and the fuel has been handled onboard by UECC expert engineers without any issue.

For several years, UECC has been investing in upgrading its fleet to run on more sustainable fuels, using LNG and biofuel instead of traditional marine oil fuel.

The company is building three LNG battery hybrid powered pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) in China. The first newbuild is scheduled for delivery in late 2021, with two more to follow.

UECC also operates two dual-fuel LNG PCTC vessels, delivered to the company by China’s NACKS in 2016.