Advanced biofuels can accelerate shipping’s decarbonisation without new infrastructure
Dr Nicholas Ball, CEO of XFuel, makes the case for greater use of biofuels today.
We are increasingly seeing a premium emerge for vessels that can demonstrate sustainability credentials. This however is set against a practical challenge. Many of the solutions currently being developed still face a number of technical and logistical issues. For larger ships looking to decarbonise and transition to low carbon fuels today, viable solutions remain limited, while the majority of options currently being examined will not only take time, but tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment. That investment is tentatively starting to flow, and infrastructure is starting to be built, but even under best-case timelines, shipping could take decades to decarbonise.
This is where second-generation biofuels can make a real difference decarbonising the sector by rapidly delivering cost-effective emissions reductions.
An industry-wide solution
New fuels and energy sources for shipping face significant logistical challenges that are yet to be overcome. One of these is rather obvious; if your ship arrives at a port and there is no methanol, ammonia, or hydrogen available, you can’t fill the tanks with VLSFO and carry on as normal. A shipowner or charterer has to plan ahead and, while infrastructure is in its infancy, there are very few options for port calls. This is perhaps one of the biggest factors holding shipowners back from investing in new engines today.
‘Drop in’ biofuels side-step this issue. A recent report by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) highlights the viable and valuable proposition brought forward by advanced fuels. The report argues such fuels offer marine fuel alternatives which can enter the market relatively quickly and help phase out fossil fuels.
The ‘drop-in’ characteristics of certain biofuels, offer the possibility to replace conventional fossil fuels without modifications to engines, fuel tanks, pumps or supply systems. This offers an immediate, flexible and cost-effective solution to the existing fleet, allowing vessels to decarbonise by reaching for those fuels or mixing biofuel bunkers with traditional VLSFO.
Some fuels, including XFuel’s marine ISO 8217:2017 compliant fuel, meet the same specifications as fossil fuels and can thus be used interchangeably or blended with fuels available at ports around the world.
Scaling globally
There is one key factor that has historically limited the ability of biofuels to act as a market-wide decarbonisation solution for an industry that uses as much liquid fuel as shipping: feedstock availability. However, new technologies and approaches are addressing the issue.
Feedstocks are the raw ingredient and biological building block of a biofuel. Those building blocks alone can dictate the sustainability and viability of a fuel.
For example, first-generation biofuels use crops as feedstocks, which could dramatically impact food supplies or ecosystems if scaled up to the kind of output required by the shipping industry. They are also exposed to volatile agricultural commodity markets. The above-mentioned limitations have limited the impact of traditional first-generation biofuels.
Second-generation biofuels were developed to overcome these limitations. Derived from waste, they represent a more sustainable alternative. But this alone does not deliver the scale that shipping needs.
Take the example of HVO. It uses waste feedstocks and delivers a more sustainable solution. However, the waste that these fuels rely on is scarce – making these fuels expensive and meaning that they cannot be produced in high enough quantities to create industry-wide change.
New technology has unlocked a more flexible and abundant feedstock: lignocellulose, or plant-based waste.
Lignocellulosic waste biomass is readily available across the world, and is derived from the waste produced by the manufacturing, building, agricultural, and forestry sectors. Such waste would otherwise be left to decompose or be incinerated.
When lignocellulosic waste is sourced sustainably and used to produce ‘drop in’ advanced fuels, these can represent an important part of the solution to shipping’s decarbonisation conundrum, while offering a product which is comparably priced to fossil fuel equivalent. These fuels offer a cost-effective and flexible carbon emissions reduction solution for shipowners, without relying on yet-to-be-built infrastructure.
Even when consensus on green ship propulsion does come, retrofitting and re-building the entire global fleet will take decades – and will leave polluting ships trading well beyond the IMO’s net-zero target dates. Sustainable biofuels therefore have a vital role to play; the ability to convert diverse and widely available waste feedstocks unlocks an entire, scalable sustainable energy market that was previously inaccessible.
