Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s second largest container line, will trial emulsified synthetic heavy fuel oil on its ships this year with a view to rolling out the fuel more widely in the long run, says an article published in Splash247.
Operational Trial Agreement
MSC Shipmanagement has signed an operational trial with Quadrise Fuels International (QFI), and will check out how the alternate fuel called MSAR, as well as another QFI biofuel called bioMSARTM, works on MAN and Wartsila engines, before taking the trial further.
Commenting on this agreement Jason Miles, CEO of QFI, said: “We believe that MSC’s large modern fleet installed with electronic engines and, in some cases, exhaust gas cleaning systems is well positioned to realise the economic and environmental benefits of MSAR and bioMSARTM and we look forward to releasing the project and getting the trials underway in 2021.”
MSAR
MSAR is a low viscosity oil-in-water emulsified synthetic HFO while QFI’s bioMSAR combines conventional MSAR technology and fuel with renewable glycerol to produce an oil-in-water emulsified synthetic HFO with lower emissions, including 20-30% less CO2.
This is not MSC’s first biofuel foray. Since December 2019, MSC has been using biofuels from another supplier with 30% blends for ships bunkering at Europe’s largest port, Rotterdam.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
A host of other container lines have also been looking at biofuels over the last 18 months.
MSC in last June started offering clients a new carbon neutral offering. South Pole, headquartered in Switzerland like MSC, has helped create the MSC Carbon Neutral Programme, which supports projects that deliver measurable benefits aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Compensation to Unavoidable Emissions
MSC’s team of experts help calculate the emissions generated by the volume of cargo moved then clients can select one of the projects, part of the MSC Carbon Neutral Programme, to compensate the unavoidable emissions of the marine and inland transportation of their goods.
Decarbonisation with Hydrogen Council
MSC has recently joined the Hydrogen Council, a global industry body to foster cross-sector collaboration to accelerate R&D related to clean hydrogen derived fuels and solutions.
“The future of shipping and decarbonisation will rely on strong partnerships from both the perspective of technology collaboration and procurement. There must be a massive injection of energy and capital into R&D efforts to bring alternative fuels and alternative propulsion technologies to the marketplace to decarbonise all industries in the longer term,” Bud Darr, an executive vice president at MSC, commented earlier this month.
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Source : Splash247
