Towage operator Svitzer, part of Maersk, has said it will convert its whole fleet of 10 tugs in London and Medway to be powered by marine biofuel, enabling the company to offer a new towage solution named Ecotow by unlocking about 90% CO2 reduction in its client’s Scope 3 emissions.
Since November 15 this year, Svitzer’s five tugs serving the Isle of Grain LNG terminal in the Medway have been running exclusively on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel. By January 2022, Svitzer’s London-based fleet will operate using HVO biofuel. The decision to scale up biofuel use across the London fleet follows the completion of the biofuel trial onboard Svitzer Intrepid, which has been running on biofuel since September this year.
In addition to London, Svitzer’s global customers will be given the opportunity to inset fossil-fuelled towage elsewhere in their value chain. Svitzer would achieve this by calculating the emissions impact of towage operations for Ecotow and matching this impact with the volume of biofuel to be delivered to the London-based fleet.
Svitzer said it sees HVO as a crucial first step in the roadmap towards a carbon neutral towage sector and plans to expand the Ecotow offering to more global operations. The company is also working on developing the world’s first fuel cell tug for harbor operations, which will run on green methanol. The fuel cell tug will serve as a test bed for future Svitzer newbuilds and is scheduled to enter service in the Svitzer Europe area in Q1 2024.
