Danish bunker supplier, Bunker One has conducted the first bunkering of B30-blend fuel on TUI Cruises’ ‘Mein Schiff 4’, while the vessel was berthed at Aarhus, while she was on a cruise to the Svalbard islands.
A gasoil blend containing 30% advanced second generation FAME was bunkered by trucks under guidance from Bunker One’s technical experts, who helped to ensure a smooth bunkering experience.
“We understand that unique challenges sometimes require special solutions. In Bunker One, we are fully committed to pro-actively facilitating deliveries of any low-carbon products as per our customer’s preferred choice,” said Peter Zachariassen, Bunker One CEO.
Bunker One has experience in advising maritime clients on conventional and low-carbon fuel solutions, as a global one-stop-shop, the company said.
‘Mein Schiff 4’ was the first of the Mein Schiff fleet to utilise sustainable biofuel and successfully tested it during her voyage,
The result: fewer emissions and another important step towards a climate-neutral cruise, Mein Schiff said.
The biofuel bunkered was purely vegetable and mainly consisted of cooking oil residues.
This fuel is almost free of SOx and in its pure form offers a CO2 reduction of up to 90%, compared to fossil fuels.
‘Mein Schiff 4’ also plans to use shore power while she is berthed in Kiel, Aalesund and Bergen.
The biofuel test run on ‘Mein Schiff 4’ is another milestone in TUI Cruises’ new 2030 sustainability strategy. By 2030, the cruise lines within the TUI Group want to reduce their absolute CO2 emissions by more than a quarter (27.5%), compared to 2019.
They are the first in the cruise industry to have their climate targets checked and validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), TUI claimed.
This goal is to be achieved, among other things, by using shore power, clean fuels, increasing energy efficiency, for example through environmentally friendly underwater silicone coatings and reducing the average speed to slow steaming, as well as other measures.
“The completed test phase on board ‘Mein Schiff 4’ is extremely important for us and the climate goals that have been set. Because, the biofuels can be used directly in the ship’s engines without costly conversion or conversion measures.
“This shows once again that we are not only investing in more sustainable cruises with our newbuilds such as ‘Mein Schiff 7’ and the eighth ship, but are also making every adjustment to the existing fleet to become better and even more climate-friendly,” said Lucienne Damm, TUI Cruises’ Head of Sustainability.
