Vehicle carrier biofuel bunkering

The Mitsui OSK Lines-operated car and truck carrier, Heroic Ace, was refuelled with biofuel supplied by TotalEnergies on 11 June 2022 via ship-to-ship transfer, while the carrier loaded and offloaded cargo simultaneously.

The biofuel has been used during the carrier’s voyage to Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates. MOL Car Carrier Division has been working on biofuel trials for the European short haul trade for more than a year but is now setting its sights further afield.

“We are very pleased to announce that we have expanded our actions to the long haul trades and successfully conducted a milestone voyage together with our valued partner, TotalEnergies,” said Koichi Hirata, general manager, car carrier division of MOL.

Laura Ong, general manager of trading and operations for Asia Pacific, TotalEnergies Marine Fuels, based in Singapore, said the company aims to develop a sustainable, cost-efficient and low-carbon biofuel solutions for a range of customers.

“We are delighted to work with frontrunners in green shipping, such as MOL, on the use of sustainable biofuels to reduce their vessels’ carbon footprint,” said Laura Ong. “This partnership has allowed us to build on our amassed biofuels supply chain capabilities and operational success, to deliver this lower-carbon fuel to a new vessel type.”

The biofuel blend used in this trial composed of very low sulphur fuel oil blended with 20% second-generation, waste-based and ISCC-certified used cooking oil methyl ester. From a well-to-wake assessment, the biofuel will reduce GHG emissions by approximately 17% compared to conventional fuel oil.