Biofuels: A force for good

It’s counterintuitive. Normally innovation works from a rough proposition to meeting more stringent requirements, but when it comes to furthering the development of marine biofuels, the problem has been reversed.

Quality provides both the challenge and the opportunity, explains Sjors Geraedts of Goodfuels Marine. “You don’t need or want the highest standard biofuel for a ship engine – they’ve been using relatively low-quality fossil fuels all these years. What we are after is ‘just good enough’ to provide a workable compromise between quality and price.”

He points out premium MGO replacement biofuels are already available through Rotterdam and Amsterdam (with a supply chain in place to all north-western European ports) but Mr Geraedts underlines the fact these new fuels are a million miles from the first-generation fatty methyl esters (FAME) derivatives which gave biofuels a bad name.

By contrast, these second generation alternatives have a shelf life comparable to normal petrocarbons, look like water, have virtually no contaminants and eliminate sulphur emissions. Unlike their predecessors, they generally emit a lower level of NOx than more usual fuels and will meet Tier II standards although like traditional fuels, an SCR is needed for Tier III. Having said this, as NOx is a result of engine/fuel interaction, developments with partner Wärtsilä hold out the promise of further inroads into NOx creation.

These bio alternatives also match up well against LNG: liquefied natural gas only presents a 20% saving on CO2 compared to an 80% drop from biofuels. With shipping’s carbon footprint under discussion in Paris, the time for offering a cleaner alternative that doesn’t demand the same level of infrastructure investments or major engine modifications, seems ripe.

But – and it’s a big but – these completely ‘seamless’ drop-in fuels are not cheap: at present the price is just a tad over the price of MGO although as Mr Geraedts explains how much over “depends on volume, logistics and geographical deployment”. Despite this they are still of interest to certain segments of the industry, those vessels with an unpredictable route that spend time in one kind of environmentally controlled area or another which would like to fill up on clean burning fuel – but can’t afford any narrowing of flexibility or modifying their engines. Dredgers for example fall into this category: these travel the world but often work on government contracts close to shore where sporting clean, green credentials can make the difference between winning a contract or not. Therefore Goodfuels’ partner, Boskalis (a central figure in the global dredging industry) is taking the lead in testing out biofuels on its own working fleet.

For the rest, the race is on to find more cost-effective alternatives that retain biofuel’s advantages. There are a number of streams that readily offer themselves up as a feedstock, some only a small step away from commercial availability says Mr Geraedts. “Large industrial residues from the paper and pulp industry are already being converted into fuel for other sectors, the shipping industry could initially start with these.”

But he adds we are already surrounded by potential sources that could be processed in a number of ways: some may be suitable for hydrogenation which yields a high quality fuel while pyrolysis – a kind of pressurised heat treatment – is useful for extracting fuel from less obvious feedstocks, therefore just a little further down the line the marine industry could be making use of materials presently headed for the incinerators. For example, it’s possible to use well-sorted municipal waste, although the challenge is to separate the useable organic from the non-organic fraction.

Further, corn stover, straw and sugarcane bagasse is currently being stripped of cellulose for creating ethanol – but the lignin that is left behind also has potential: “I see a good match between lignin derived fuels and shipping, there are large volumes available that are presently discarded because they are no good for high-quality biofuels. But we could see lower grade fuels being made from them quite soon – if there’s an interest.”

However, these will not be completely ‘drop in’ alternatives explains Mr Geraedts as, for example while pyrolisis can be used to create a stable, cleaner fuel the result is quite acidic. Despite this he thinks there may soon be some very good deals on the table for those willing to tweak their vessels: “You have to ask, would slight modification of the engine and fuel line, for example changing some of the bearings or pipework to stainless steel, be worthwhile if it meant running on cleaner burning, low price fuel? Point-to-point operations like ferries which have a regular bunkering spot on a predictable route could really benefit.” Even, he adds, in today’s depressed oil market “there’s still a business case”. And it’s one that allows for creativity.

“Exactly how far the ship is modified for the fuel or the fuel changes for the ship’s requirements will usually be a matter of balance,” he says. “I’d expect a lot of these needs to be negotiated somewhere in the middle.”

Therefore when it comes to a decision on running vessels there are a number of factors to consider and it’s not always the most straightforward cash evaluation that wins. Further, recent events prove that tables can turn as markets fluctuate. For example when Stena Line started to think about experimenting with methanol, the price was relatively low in comparison to HFO: more recently HFO has dipped while methanol’s price has kept up – but Stena has gone ahead and is switching over Germanica’s engines to spark ignition, zinc coating the tanks and so on in order to make the most of the emissions reductions.

However, while premium fuels may be thought of as more rigorously tested and certified, Goodfuels offering will be putting a lot of energy into keeping it to what it says on the tin. In fact, whether high or lower in quality, the fuels will come with the same ‘double certification’, the first ensuring that the standard of the fuel going into the bunkering tanks will be the same the world over. The second layer of certification answers the need for sustainability: troubled questions emerged from biofuel’s utilisation of feedstocks that could compete against food crops in disadvantaged economies. In Brazil, biofuels were tarnished by association with the giant and heartless ‘agribusinesses’ that worked to the detriment of many small farmers and Goodfuels is going a long way to make sure that this accusation can’t be levelled at their own offerings.

“We looked around and found the strictest standard, provided by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels,” says Mr Geraedts. “They have 12 principles, from biodiversity to human rights, which we will be meeting.” So, RSB certification is a useful element in showing that the fuel meets ethical as well as environmental standards.

While Goodfuels doesn’t produce the fuels themselves, they blend and supply the different streams to order and have enough resources to keep hold of the reigns on quality and quantity, having a great deal of input on potential new fuels. “We are closely connected to emerging fuel technologies, we can test it ourselves or, if it’s more mature, this can go straight into the testing programme run in partnership with Wärtsilä,” he explains. This programme is working ‘top down’ with the easier, higher grade fuels being put through their paces first and the lower quality fuels being approached later on.

Further, as newer fuels emerge Goodfuels sees its role in assisting both ports and lines to get ahead of the curve, telling them which products are coming up that might prove a good fit with their operations. The proposition is gaining interest: Amsterdam and Rotterdam (one of the largest bunkering ports in the world), are both collaborating on the two year project but there are other facilities in areas as diverse as Asia, Australia and Scandinavia in Goodfuels’ pipeline – this last, Mr Geraedts explains, “presents us with a useful opportunity as the area has well managed forests as well as an advanced environmental policy”.

“Ports are important partners for us” he adds, as getting the offerings out into the market feeds back to make the fuels more responsive to requirements. It should work together to push the market forward, getting over the age-old problems associated with lack of investment and helping suppliers gain efficiencies of scale.

One last point: paradoxically, it seems the fall in the oil market is adding to the interest, rather than detracting from it because it’s allowed customers to get picky: “Fuel purchasers are focusing more on quality again – and more testing is being done than ever,” he says. So because current drop-in biofuel has an excellent flash point and good cold properties, when it’s mixed with other fuels it actually improves the overall quality of the blend.