Skangas Fuels Its First Ship with Liquefied Biogas

• 29 Jun 2018

Skangas has supplied Furetank’s chemical/product tanker M/T Fure Vinga with liquefied biogas (LBG), representing the company’s first delivery of this renewable and environmentally friendly fuel to a marine company. 

The fueling took place at the Port of Gothenburg, transferring the fuel directly from a tanker truck to the ship. The Swedish LBG was delivered to Furetank’s ship from Skangas’ parent company Gasum’s biogas facility in Lidköping.

The Fure Vinga, designed by FKAB and delivered by the Avic Dingheng Shipyard (China) in April this year, is one of two vessels in Furetank’s fleet powered by liquefied gas and the first of the six sister vessels that Gothia Tanker Alliance has ordered at Avic Dingheng. The vessels have a deadweight of 16,300 DWT on design draught, are equipped with dual fuel engines for LNG operation and have Ice class 1A.

The vessels will be trading in North Europe and will benefit from Skangas’ LNG supply network in the region, according to the company.

Further to the environmental benefits of using LNG instead of conventional bunker oils, LBG is also 100% renewable with no CO2 emissions. For running the engine, LBG has similar or better characteristics compared with LNG, Skangas said.

“Running vessels on liquefied natural gas is our contribution to a more environmentally friendly environment. We will, however, contribute by increasing the sustainability. Using liquefied biogas was a natural step in this direction,” Lars Höglund, CEO of Furetank, noted.

“No doubt LBG will be a clear option for us. It is proven by this operation that it can be available from our existing LNG supplier and not at least with the same quality as our current LNG fuel,” he added.

“This is the first time we are supplying LBG to a marine customer. However, it will not be the last. To be increasingly greener with the renewable biogas is possible because we use the same infrastructure that we’ve built throughout northern Europe. This means that LNG and LBG will continue to walk hand in hand as the availability of LBG on the market is on the rise,” Tommy Mattila, sales and marketing director in Skangas, commented.