Proving Out Maritime Industry Alternative Fuel Innovation

Over the last few years we have become a key partner with various companies around the world when it comes to helping them tackle the immense issue of climate change and the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. While our exhaust gas analyzers are often used for sports car and motorcycle performance tuning or forklift maintenance, a large amount of our recent exhaust gas analyzer business has been focused on helping solve the global CO2 emissions problem. 

Reducing CO2 Emissions in the Maritime Industry with ExxonMobil and Stena Bulk

Our new focus on CO2 emissions reduction has also introduced us to the maritime industry in a big way. Late last year ExxonMobil—in collaboration with container ship company Stena Bulk— used our 5-gas exhaust gas analyzer to test and prove out one of their new sustainable marine bio fuels that reduces Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40%.

The sea trial demonstrated that the marine bio fuel oil, which can provide a CO2 emission reduction of up to approximately 40% compared with conventional marine fuel can be used in a relevant marine application without modification and can help operators take a significant step towards meeting their carbon emissions reduction targets. This also supports the International Maritime Organization’s ambition to reduce total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by 2050.

“With new marine fuels coming to market recently, the need for quality fuels that are both reliable and ISO compliant has never been greater,” said Cowan Lee, Marine Fuels Marketing Manager at ExxonMobil. “ExxonMobil’s new marine bio fuel oil meets that growing need as it has been extensively tested, is sulphur compliant and can make a significant contribution in helping operators reduce their CO2 emissions.”

“As operators face increasingly stringent regulations and significant pressure from customers to demonstrate their commitment to reducing GHG emissions, this is an important next step in providing the lower-emissions fuels that operators want and need,” Lee added.

Innovating for CO2 Emissions Reduction with Maersk

Not long after making our maiden voyage into the maritime industry with ExxonMobil and Stena Bulk, Maersk— the largest container shipping line and vessel operator in the world— bought several of our 5-gas exhaust gas analyzers. At first we thought they were just using them in the traditional way to monitor and analyze their exhaust emissions for performance reasons, but after sitting down and having a discussion with Anders Worning Slot – one of Maersk’s Machinery Engineers — we realized that they are using our 5-gas exhaust gas analyzer to perform emissions testing on a wide array of alternative biofuel sources they are developing to combat climate change and meet their long-term CO2 Reduction and Sustainability goal of having a Carbon Neutral Supply Chain by 2050.

Commenting yesterday, October 25th, on Maersk’s long-term sustainability goal, Bo-Cerup Simonsen – CEO of the Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping— stated,

At the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping we want to show the world that it is possible to decarbonize the maritime industry by 2050. This strategy (Industry Transition Strategy) outlines pathways ahead and guides our research and the collaboration with our partners and other public and private players to make it happen. It is still early days and there continues to be many uncertainties, but we believe that an important element in effective collaboration is transparency and that at this stage ‘perfect is the enemy of good’. The journey is ahead of us, and we hope this launch will contribute positively to even closer collaboration and more informed conversations and decision making.

To show how serious their commitment is to their Sustainability goals, Maersk Growth – the Corporate Venture arm of A.P. Moller-Maersk— has invested heavily in three separate alternative fuel companies in just the last three months: Vertoro, WasteFuel, and Prometheus Fuels. Maersk knows that reaching their grand goal of decarbonizing the global supply chain will require more than just one silver bullet, which is why they are investing in multiple fuel types to achieve their future fuel transition. Let’s take a quick look at their newest alternative fuel investments.

Vertoro

Vertoro is a Dutch start-up company focused on developing liquid lignin technology that can be used as a marine fuel. Founded in 2017, Vertoro produces liquid lignin exclusively from sustainably sourced forestry and agricultural residues by means of a patented thermochemical process. Like fossil oil, liquid lignin can be used as a platform for fuel, chemical, and material applications. Vertoro plans to build a demo plant, which will become operational in 2022. The output of this plant will be used to develop marine fuels in partnership with Maersk as well as other applications for the materials and chemicals markets.

“We consider Vertoro to be a leading start-up in the sustainable biomass-to-liquids space and we are excited to invest in the company and become part of the efforts to effectively scale up production of green fuels,” said Peter Votkjaer Jorgensen, a partner at Maersk Growth.

WasteFuel

WasteFuel is a California-based startup focused on turning waste into sustainable aviation fuel, green bio-methanol, and renewable natural gas. According to WasteFuel Co-founder, Chairman and CEO, Trevor Neilson,

“WasteFuel was launched to solve two problems: the waste crisis that affects millions of peoples’ lives globally and the growing demand for low-carbon fuels that can reduce overall emissions. We’re proud to have partnered with Maersk to usher in an era of more environmentally conscious sea transport. Our goal is for WasteFuel to reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared to fossil fuels.”

Prometheus Fuels

Prometheus Fuels is also a California-based company focused on creating electrofuels through direct air capture. Prometheus’ technology is quite radical as it captures its CO2 supply from ambient air, as opposed to waste exhaust from a fossil-fueled industrial plant. Their process is unquestionably carbon neutral: carbon comes out of the air during fuel production, then goes back into the air again after fuel combustion. The technology is also independent of the availability of concentrated CO2 streams. According to Rob McGinnis, Founder and CEO of Prometheus Fuels,

Our zero net carbon, zero sulphur electrofuel comes from renewable electricity and air so its feedstock is limitless. Our electrofuel offers a truly viable solution to decarbonize shipping – one that can scale and be implemented in time to avoid catastrophic global warming.

Exhaust Gas Analyzers for Alternative Fuel Types

At Bridge Analyzers we are proud to play an integral part in helping the maritime and alternative fuel industries progress towards their goal of creating a carbon neutral planet, and we are doing this through providing them with quality exhaust gas analysis. Every fuel type that exists or will exist will have exhaust emissions, and have no doubt, we will be there to analyze it.