Wallenius Wilhelmsen bunkers its 1st marine biofuel in Korea

Photo: Wallenius Wilhelmsen

Calling at Masan Port, South Korea, as part of its regular sailing schedule, M/V Torrens is the first Wallenius Wilhelmsen vessel to bunker 30 percent used cooking oil (UCO)-based biodiesel blended with high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) in Korea, the company announced Nov. 6.

The number of suppliers worldwide offering this particular B30 fuel is currently very limited, according to Wallenius Wilhelmsen.

“The issue is compounded by the general lack of demand for marine biofuel blending in Korea,” the company added.

Jang Hongseok, Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s manager for energy sourcing, said, “Despite the growing demand and supply of biofuels around the world, the preparation of biofuels in Korean ports has been somewhat slow. As Korea is one of our major bunkering ports, stable biofuel supply is essential to secure flexibility of tonnage allocation, so I am pleased to have a B30 HSFO trial with GS Caltex, one of Korea’s major fuel suppliers, and I hope close cooperation will continue in the future.”

A collaboration between GS Caltex Corp. and Wallenius Wilhelmsen, supply will be limited in Korea until the rules and regulations for biofuels are finalized by the authorities.

“GS Caltex has paved the way for developing bio-marine fuels in Korea, and we expect this B30 trial with Wallenius Wilhelmsen will be a meaningful step for scrubber-installed vessels of global shipping companies to reduce their carbon emissions when calling Korean ports. We hope to expand the relationship with Wallenius Wilhelmsen and support as a carbon-reduction solution partner in Korea.”

Wallenius Wilhelmsen said in the meantime it is currently assessing the viability of both HSFO-biofuel blends and very-low sulfur fuel oil-biofuel blends in the Asia region as part of its global deep-sea trade decarbonization strategy.

Customers are increasingly looking to reduce their scope 3 CO2 emissions by utilizing biofuel.

In response, Wallenius Wilhelmsen said it has pioneered a new reduced-carbon freight service and will issue declarations, verified by a third-party accreditor of reduced-CO2 emissions to customers who have purchased the new offer.

Customers using the new service will typically be able to reduce their scope 3 CO2/greenhouse-gas emissions in their supply chains by approximately 20 percent to 25 percent using B30 biofuel compared with VLSFO/HSFO on a fuel-lifecycle basis.