United European Car Carriers (UECC) has performed the first-ever ship refuelling operation in Spain with a truck-borne shipment of liquefied biomethane (LBM), according to the company's release.
LBM supplied by green energy developer Naturgy from a biomethane production plant in the surrounding Galicia province was pumped directly from a tanker truck into the tanks of UECC’s multi-fuel LNG battery hybrid Pure Car and Truck Carrier, Auto Advance.
The delivery allows the leading sustainable carrier in the European shortsea RoRo trade to diversify its regional sources of supply for LBM beyond its main hub of Zeebrugge where it has a long-term supply agreement in place with Titan Clean Fuels.
Another aspect of this diversification is that it also represents the first physical molecule delivery of the fuel - instead of mass balanced - as UECC explores multiple alternative delivery pathways to broaden its LBM portfolio. UECC is boosting uptake of the fuel, also known as bioLNG, in line with expansion of its Sail for Change sustainability initiative launched last summer in which LBM is being bunkered on the company’s five dual and multi-fuel LNG PCTCs for several major vehicle manufacturers to cut their Scope 3 emissions.
UECC is providing fuel demand to support renewable energy development by Naturgy, which is involved in numerous innovative projects to convert agricultural and livestock waste into biomethane, strengthening the regional circular economy. Naturgy, in a joint venture with Reganosa and Repsol, is looking to produce 1 terawatt hours per year of biomethane from treatment of animal slurry and other waste sources, which would cover 7% of Galicia’s annual gas import requirements and result in a reduction of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.