The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has teamed up with Oldendorff Carriers, BHP and GoodFuels to carry out the first marine biofuel trial involving an ocean-going vessel bunkered in Singapore.
The vessel selected for the biofuel trial at the world’s largest hub for convetional bunker fuels was one of the Oldendorff’s eco-kamsarmaxes, Kira Oldendorff.
.The 2020-built 81,290 tdw dry bulk carrier was bunkered with “drop-in” advanced biofuel to be blended with conventional fossil fuels.
Minor modifications were carried out to burn the biofuel blend efficiently, and monitoring instruments were installed to capture the trial data as accurately as possible, Oldendorff explained.
“Oldendorff Carriers and BHP’s views on a greener future are mutually aligned and being historically close partners, it made this trial a natural fit. GF are leaders in biofuels and early movers in this segment and felt they were an excellent choice, while MPA are strong supporters of green initiatives and are always instrumental in supporting industry participants in the ‘shipping capital of the world’,” said Alexander Vajsova-Jones Oldendorff Carriers Singapore’s managing director.
“Singapore is committed to the environmental sustainability of the shipping industry. We welcome interested parties to cooperate on the research, development and piloting of clean marine fuels in reducing the impact of shipping on the environment,” said Daknashamoorthy Ganasen, MPA’s senior director (Operations and Marine Services).
Singapore is the world’s top bunkering port with sales amounting to close to 50m tonnes in 2020, an increase of 5% year-on-year.
