Energy company Gasum is collaborating with Hapag-Lloyd to supply their container vessels with liquefied biomethane (bio-LNG) during a two-year tender period. Earlier this year, Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s leading container shipping companies, won the first tender by the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) for ocean shipping based on waste-based bio-LNG that achieves at least a 90 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the company's release.
ZEMBA is a first-of-its-kind buyers’ group within the maritime sector with the mission to accelerate commercial deployment of zero-emission (ZE) shipping solutions. ZEMBA is an initiative of Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV) and facilitated by the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program.
Gasum is supplying Hapag-Lloyd with the needed amount of bio-LNG to fulfill the requirements of the ZEMBA tender. The bio-LNG will be used on a route between Rotterdam and Singapore during 2025–2026.
Liquefied biomethane, bio-LNG, is a fully renewable and environmentally friendly fuel with life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions that are, on average, 90% lower when compared with fossil fuel use. Biogas can be used in all the same applications as natural gas, including as a road and maritime transport fuel and as energy for industry.
Gasum’s biomethane is produced from waste feedstocks such as biowaste, sewage sludge, manure and other industrial and agricultural side streams. The residual solids and liquids created in the biogas production process are further processed and used as, for example, fertilizers in agriculture or raw material in industrial processes.
Gasum is dedicated to procuring more renewable gas to satisfy the increasing demand for sustainable energy. Gasum produces biogas in its own 17 biogas plants in Finland and Sweden and has additionally established long-term partnerships with trusted and certified biogas producers throughout Europe.
Gasum’s goal is to offer 7 TWh of renewable gas to its customers yearly by 2027, including biomethane and e-methane. Achieving this goal would mean a combined carbon dioxide reduction of 1.8 million tons per year for Gasum’s customers.
Gasum is able provide bio-LNG bunkering services to all shipping companies that have vessels running on liquefied natural gas, as LNG and bio-LNG are fully interchangeable. They can also be mixed at any ratio.
Gasum is a Nordic gas sector and energy market expert. Gasum offers cleaner energy and energy market expert services for industry and for combined heat and power production as well as cleaner fuel solutions for road and maritime transport. The company helps its customers reduce their own carbon footprint as well as that of their customers. Together with its partners, Gasum promotes development towards a carbon-neutral future on land and at sea. The Gasum Group has around 340 employees in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Germany. The company’s revenue totaled EUR 1,457 million in 2023.
With a fleet of 287 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 2.2 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. In the Liner Shipping segment, the Company has around 13,700 employees and 400 offices in 140 countries. Hapag-Lloyd has a container capacity of 3.2 million TEU – including one of the largest and most modern fleets of reefer containers. A total of 114 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports on all the continents. In the Terminal & Infrastructure segment, Hapag-Lloyd has equity stakes in 20 terminals in Europe, Latin America, the United States, India and North Africa. Around 2,900 employees are assigned to the Terminal & Infrastructure segment and provide complementary logistics services at selected locations in addition to the terminal activities.