Biodiesel – new fuel, new challenges

Biofuels may not become the zero-carbon solution of choice in the shipping industry’s decarbonization process in the longer term, but could have a significant role to play to accelerate the process. In a recent article DNV GL summarizes the regulatory issues, safety and other operational issues faced by those using these new fuels or fuel blends. One of numerous possible ways to comply with the IMO’s strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships is to use biofuels or biofuel blends. Biofuels have very low sulphur levels and low CO2 emissions, as such they are a technically viable solution in meeting some of the current and future emission requirements. However, their NOx emissions might be higher than with fossil diesel oils and another immediate challenge is that the shipping sector still have limited knowledge on handling and applying biofuels as part of their fuel supply. Read more: Gard