On March 15, under the supervision of the "Haixun 0718" boat, the bunkering ship "Sijie 21" successfully refueled 1,600 tons of B24 biofuel oil for the container ship "COSCO ITALY" at the Chuanshan Port Area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port. This is the first biofuel refueling business for international ships in Ningbo Port, marking a key leap from scratch in the field of marine biofuel oil refueling.
Biofuel oil refers to solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels composed or extracted from biomass. It can be used as a substitute for petroleum-based gasoline and diesel, and is an important direction for the development and utilization of renewable energy. For ships, some marine biofuel oil can be directly adapted to ship engines without modifying the existing ship fuel system, and has better combustion performance and significant environmental advantages. It is regarded as "ready-to-use green ship fuel".
The B24 biofuel oil refueled in this operation is a mixture of 24% of kitchen waste oil and 76% of fuel oil, which is expected to reduce ship carbon emissions by about 20%.
"At present, the International Maritime Organization has put forward higher requirements for ship carbon emissions. It is also a general trend to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the shipping industry. Biofuel oil bunkering is one of the ways, which has positive significance for the development of China's shipping industry and ecological environment protection." said a staff member of the Hazard Management and Pollution Prevention Department of Ningbo Maritime Safety Administration.
In order to ensure the safe and orderly progress of this bunkering operation, the maritime department has set up a special team to actively explore and study the safety guarantee measures for bunkering operations, and guide bunkering units to carry out special research on navigation safety and risk identification of ship-to-ship bunkering operations. Comprehensively considering the influence of meteorological and sea conditions in the frontier waters of Chuanshan Port, the maritime department has formulated a "one area, one ship, one policy" bunkering guarantee plan. During the bunkering operation, it implemented full-process safety guarantee for the bunkering operation by building a "CCTV+ patrol boat+ drone+VTS" water dynamic full-element safety guarantee system.
It is reported that the complete success of this bunkering operation marks that the Ningbo Port of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has successfully joined the ranks of the few ports in China that have both LNG and biofuel oil bunkering service capabilities.
