Marine fuel testing and marine surveying business Maritec Pte Ltd (CTI-Maritec) on Friday (8 July) released a notice regarding biodiesel blend testing for bunker fuels.
The firm expects to receive more biodiesel blends for analysis with vessel owners switching to it to comply with regulatory requirements including the recently approved Unified Interpretation of regulation 18.3 of MARPOL Annex VI:
CTI-Maritec has been offering full range of biodiesel blends testing for bunker fuels since early 2022. Since then, CTI-Maritec has tested quite a number of biodiesel blends in residual marine fuel, typically the biodiesel blends are ranged from B20 to B30.
In addition to the ISO 8217 parameters, it is highly recommended that biodiesel blends shall also be measured for FAME content and lower calorific value (or net heat of combustion).
Biodiesel blends has lower energy content when compared to conventional fossil fuels and the calculated net specific energy commonly used for fossil fuels may not apply to biodiesel blends. In order to plan for the consumption of biodiesel blend for a voyage and to determine the engine’s performance accurately, lower calorific value (or net heat of combustion) shall be measured. When ordering biodiesel blends, the FAME content is agreed between buyer and seller, therefore it is important to measure the FAME content in order to ensure that the correct FAME content is received as per the biodiesel blend transaction.
Use of marine fuel containing FAME onboard ship may potentially pose some operation issues such as microbial growth; oxidative stability & long-term storage stability; low temperature operation & corrosion.
In view of the potential operation issues mentioned above, it is advised that vessel owners shall pre-emptively order optional analysis when routine ISO 8217 analysis indicates elevated values for some critical parameters as summarised below:
With the approval of Unified Interpretation of regulation 18.3 of MARPOL Annex VI, with regard to the use of biofuels, by Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) as summarised below:
Regulation 18.3 of MARPOL Annex VI – Use of Biofuels
In the near future, CTI-Maritec will expect to receive more biodiesel blends for analysis as more vessel owners will switch to biodiesel blends in order to comply with the regulatory requirements on reduction of GHG emissions especially reduction of carbon intensity from international shipping.
Related: IBIA: Boost for biofuels as IMO removes regulatory hurdle
Photo credit: CTI-Maritec
Published: 13 July, 2022
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