Steve Bee, Group Commercial Director of marine fuels testing company VPS, on Thursday (4 July) highlighted on the latest ISO 8217:2024 revisions and their impact on maritime emissions compliance:

Ever-increasing environmental legislation in relation to reducing emissions from the global maritime fleet, has driven the development of numerous new fuels, since the last revision of the international marine fuel standard, ISO 8217:2017. 

We have seen in recent years the introduction of Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oils (VLSFOs) to support meeting the IMO2020 change in reducing the global cap for sulphur levels within marine fuels to 0.50%. This has been followed by a transition to include synthetic, renewable and recycled content within marine fuels, in the form of biofuels. These will support the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to help comply with the IMO 2030/2050 targets and numerous other legislative requirements such as, Monitoring, Recording & Verification (MRV), CII & EEXI, EU Emissions Trading Scheme and FuelEU Maritime.

As the world’s leading marine fuel testing company, VPS has over the years witnessed a slow uptake of new revisions of the ISO 8217 standard, due to a combination of price and initial availability.

According to our most recent data, 12.6% of fuel samples that are received for testing were purchased in accordance with the 2005 standard, 47.7% with the 2010 revision, 19.3% with the 2012 version, and just 20.4% with the most recent revision published in 2017.

Testing to a standard specification which is almost 20 years old and superseded by four revisions, the 2005 revision offers little in the way of vessel and environmental protection with respect to modern fuels, yet over 12% of fuels are still purchased against this revision. The cat-fine limit of 80ppm, has elevated risk of vessel damages than the 60ppm limit introduced as far back as 2010. Sulphur limits are widely outdated with the requirements of the IMO2020, 0.50% limit, stating sulphur limits of 3.50%, 4.00% and 4.50%, for the various residual grades, offering little in regard to today’s SOx regulations. In addition, Clause 5 of ISO 8217:2005, offers no consideration of today’s more complex fuel mix and the presence of FAME, HVO, GTL, or BTL in today’s fuel supply chain.

Today, the most popular revision of the standard is still ISO 8217:2010, accounting for almost 50% of all fuel samples received for testing. This 14-year old fuel standard, pre-empted the future changes in sulphur limit regulations, by removing sulphur limits from Table 2. However, this old standard revision did not account for the statutory requirements of IMO2020 and the introduction ten years later, of the 0.50% sulphur VLSFO fuels which came to the market to address the legislative reduction in SOx emissions from global shipping. There is no specification within this revision for VLSFOs, currently the most popular marine fuel type purchased today. 

In addition, for VLSFOs there has been a reduction in the spread of viscosity range from 2021 to 2024. In 2021 the majority (37%) of the VLSFO’s supplied in the marine industry had a viscosity in the range of 80 to 100 cSt. This has changed over the years showing an increasing trend in the viscosity, so that in 2024 we see an increase to 43% of the VLSFO’s supplied in the marine industry with viscosity in the range of 80 to 100 cSt. 

However, all samples are tested to a 380Cst specification, with only a maximum viscosity specification and no minimum viscosity limit, which would have been extremely helpful especially to the operators to plan ahead. Yet, a positive introduction was the Cat-fine limit reduction to 60ppm.

For distillate grades, ISO 8217:2010 introduced a new grade, DMZ, with minimum viscosity 3.000 mm2/s at 40°C. Specification limits were added for hydrogen sulphide, acid number, oxidation stability and lubricity. In addition, the minimum viscosity requirement for DMA was raised to 2.000 mm2/s and a minimum viscosity requirement of 2.000 mm2/s added for DMB.

Some changes were also made to the residual grades.

Yet Clause 5 within ISO8217:2010, has the following statement: 

5.4 The fuel shall be free from bio-derived materials other than 'de minimis' levels of FAME (FAME shall be in accordance with the requirements of EN 14214 or ASTM D6751). In the context of this International Standard, “de minimis” means an amount that does not render the fuel unacceptable for use in marine applications. The blending of FAME shall not be allowed.

The ISO 8217:2017 revision currently accounts for only 20% of fuels purchased, which is astonishingly low, considering that up to May 2024, it was the most recent revision? This revision did move nearer than its predecessors towards accounting for the presence of renewable feedstocks and FAME.

This sixth revision had changes in the general requirements to allow hydrocarbons from co-processing of renewable feedstock with petroleum feedstock and hydrocarbons from synthetic or renewable sources. Additional marine distillate grades, DFA, DFZ and DFB were added with a maximum fatty acid methyl ester(s) (FAME) content of 7.0 volume % 

Requirements to report cloud point and cold filter plugging point were added to winter grades of DMA and DMZ, whilst the sulphur content of DMA and DMZ was reduced to a maximum of 1.00 mass % and the sulphur content of DMB reduced to a maximum of 1.50 mass %. Along with these changes, the “de minimis” FAME level was increased to approximately 0.5%.

Finally, Clause 5 contained the following statement:

5.1 The fuel composition shall consist predominantly of hydrocarbons primarily derived from petroleum sources while it may also contain hydrocarbons from the following:

- synthetic or renewable sources such as Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), Gas to Liquid (GTL) or Biomass to Liquid (BTL);

- co-processing of renewable feedstock at refineries with petroleum feedstock.

Therefore, whilst upon release, each revision of ISO8217 has introduced many improvements relating to marine fuel quality at the time of release, the drive to reduce emissions from global shipping has seen many changes in fuels, introduced at a faster rate than the updates within ISO8217. As a consequence, buying fuels to older revisions, will only elevate the levels of risk to a vessel, crew health & safety and the environment. So, in May 2024, 80% of marine fuels are still being purchased to ISO82217 revisions which are between 12-19 years old, bearing little resemblance to the fuels available in today’s marine fuel market.

The introduction of the latest and 7th revision of the standard, ISO 8217:2024, released on 30th May 2024, has now addressed a number of the requirements associated with these newer fuels, to support the industry on its decarbonisation journey.

In addition to ISO 8217:2024, ISO 8216:2024, released prior to the release of ISO 8217:2024, identifies the various fuel grades introduced within the new standard and explaining the designated fuel codes.

VPS Review of ISO8217:2024

VPS believes the new revised standard ISO 8217:2024, is a major step forward from the previous 2017 6th revision and will provide global shipping and the bunker industry with greater support than its predecessor. Further to this, VPS would like to provide additional fuel quality and fuel management considerations:

Table 1 and Table 3 emphasises on distillates and biofuels with residual and distillate blends including FAME, HVO, GTL and BTL. VPS have tested several biofuels over the recent years with different bio-components, such as Cashew Nut shell Liquid (CNSL) and Tyre Pyrolysis Oil (TPO), Bio FAME residues, Algae oil all of which exhibit different behaviours and fuel management challenges, to those vessels choosing to use such fuel blends. Some of the key parameters that are required to identify the quality of such fuels are not considered in this revision of the standard.

Note: The full article by VPS’ Steve Bee and tables mentioned can be found here. 

Related: Integr8 report: Two-thirds of residual bunker fuels still sold with pre-2017 ISO specs
Related: CIMAC Working Group Fuels publishes first of five guidelines supporting release of ISO 8217:2024
Related: Singapore: CTI-Maritec outlines key changes of newly released ISO 8217:2024
Related: FOBAS announces publication of ISO 8217:2024 marine fuel specifications and FAQs
Related: FOBAS issues industry update of new ISO 8217:2024 marine fuel specifications

Photo credit: VPS
Published: 5 July, 2024