Singapore establishes provisional national quality standard for marine biofuel

Speaking in early October at the opening address of the Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition organized by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Chee Hong Tat, senior minister of state for finance and transport, shared that the Port of Singapore remained the top bunkering port in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that looking ahead, the global environment has become more uncertain and Maritime Singapore needs to continue transforming to remain relevant as a global hub port and international maritime center.

Chee outlined three key areas—taking steps to kickstart the decarbonization journey, enhancing services through digitalization, and providing quality assurance—to guide Singapore’s efforts to tackle the near-term challenges for the bunkering sector.

The National Climate Change Secretariat is leading public consultation for the potential raising of Singapore’s level of ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The push for the full electrification of local harbor craft and the use of biofuels will contribute to this national effort. At the port-to-port level, MPA is working with like-minded ports such as the Port of Rotterdam to establish green and digital corridors and develop a global network.

Singapore continues to make progress on the bunkering of biofuel. Approximately 70,000 metric tons of biofuel have been supplied in Singapore to ocean-going vessels across more than 40 biofuel-bunkering operations.

Currently, there is no international quality standard for biofuel as a marine fuel. As part of efforts to support the multifuel transition towards decarbonization, MPA together with industry, academia, and relevant government organizations under the national standardization program overseen by Enterprise Singapore have established a provisional national quality standard for marine biofuel to support the development of biofuel bunkering.

MPA has also developed a framework setting out conditions under which licensed bunker suppliers may supply biofuel within the Port of Singapore to support trials conducted by vessels. More details of the standard and requirements can be found here.

On quantity assurance, MPA is working with the Technical Committee for Bunkering to study the impact of biofuel on the metrological accuracy of mass-flow meters and is working with stakeholders to amend the SS 648: 2019 Code of Practice for Bunker Mass Flow Metering to include biofuels within its scope.