5 days ago
High hopes for new biofuel's impact on shipping emissions
A cargo ship sails through the Panama Canal, in Panama City, 13 June 2024.
Photo:
AP
Start-up venture Biowave has been launched to help commercialise new technology which converts wood into biofuel that can be blended with fossil-based marine heavy fuel oil.
The new biofuel technology has been developed by a team of scientists at Scion - now part of the Bioeconomy Science Institute.
Biowave co-founder Amanda Davies said while much of the focus had been on sustainable aviation fuels, finding solutions for shipping was just as important.
"Zero carbon fuels are going to be the ticket to market access for our exporters in the future. We can't rely on importing them.
"We really need to be backing technologies like this coming out of New Zealand - this is a world-leading technology."
While shipping is New Zealand's "economic lifeline" - both imports and exports depend on it - it's one of the country's biggest contributors to greenhouse gases.
Global shipping accounts for about 3 percent of annual CO2 emissions currently but this is expected to rise up to 13 percent in the coming decades.
Fellow Biowave co-founder Dr Paul Bennett said it had the potential to make a "substantial contribution to the maritime industry's decarbonisation goals". Regulatory bodies such as the International Maritime Organisation set aggressive decarbonisation targets, such as cutting industry emissions to zero by 2050.
"We are committed to driving down biofuel costs and accelerating clean energy innovations for the maritime sector. Major exporters are increasingly concerned about the carbon emissions linked to their products, with market access becoming a real risk."
Additionally, biochar created as a co-product through the process would act as a carbon sink and allow them to make the biofuel zero- or even negative-carbon.
Davies said preliminary work suggested the new biofuel technology could significantly reduce emissions.
"This technology offers a cost-competitive, sustainable solution for New Zealand's economy and could be scaled globally," she said.
"The maritime industry is actively seeking solutions, and we've seen significant interest in Biowave from key stakeholders across the supply chain, including shipping companies, energy providers, ports and product exporters."
The next stage will be to test a 20 percent blend of biofuel in an engine, and if successful they expect to be able to trial onboard a ship in the years to come before the biofuel is available commercially.
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