Biofuels for shipping

Transforming shipping towards fossil free solutions is a major challenge since sea traffic by definition occurs without immediate access to fuel supply. Moreover, fuel consumption is significant and break downs can lead to severe risks. Without a reliable and seamless shipping, the global trade will be hampered. Presently the global shipping emits 2 – 3% of the global GHG emissions. At present development, shipping is expected to increase its share to 15% of global GHG emissions by 2050 if no mitigating measures are initiated.

Hence there is a need to swap present fossil fuels for renewable fuels. This transition is carried out in competition with the renewable fuels demand from the other modes of traffic which adds complexity to the process. A project is therefore initiated to deliver renewable fuels to the shipping industry based on biobased crude oil from residual material in the pulp and paper industry.

The aim is to build a large-scale demonstration site for production in Örnsköldsvik.  It is built by the Swedish chemistry and cleantech company Sekab in collaboration with the Dutch chemistry company Vertoro.The technological platform is named Goldilocks, developed by Vertoro and enables refinement of biobased crude oil to many different bio fuels.

Production will start in one year from now and will initially produce biofuels for the shipping industry.