Falmouth rolls out HVO for workboat fleet

Calling HVO ‘an interim fuel’, Environment manager Vicki Spooner told Maritime Journal the plan was to also look at battery storage.

Mitchell & Webber, which has supplied central heating oil to the region for over a century, will supply 6,500 litres of HVO to Falmouth Harbour. The £50,000 (€57,000) installation has been half funded by a local grants programme and half by the harbour.

The company says the oil is produced from used cooking and vegetable oils that have absorbed CO₂ during plant growth, therefore when it is burned as a fuel it only releases the CO₂ it has already absorbed thus creates a closed loop with no net increased emissions.

“It has a higher energy density by mass, but more importantly as the fuel has no sulphurs, metals or aromatics, there is more liquid fuel to create power thereby is more fuel efficient,” Spooner said.

“Currently HVO renewable fuel for inland waters is only slightly more expensive than fossil diesel. Whilst Mitchell & Webber have been pioneers introducing HVO to the southwest nearly five years ago, the majority of fuel distributors in the UK have access to HVO and many stock it now. We would suggest that as demand grows, more distributors will follow suit.”

HVO is certainly seeing a growth in demand across Europe, and tug operator Svitzer’s tugs have been operating on it at the Port of Esbjerg in Denmark since February this year.

The ports of Hamburg, Rotterdam ,Antwerp and Barcelona are mong other European ports also trialling the fuel.

HVO can be stored in ordinary fuel tanks and meets the British Standard and European standards for diesel ( EN 15940), so existing fuel storage can be used. Unlike diesel it does not oxidise and degrade and has a usable life of 10-15 years, Spooner said. Engine maintenance would be the same, and because it is a cleaner fuel, AD Blue use is reduced.

“Falmouth Harbour sees HVO as an interim fuel to enable us to rapidly decarbonise our operations, in this case our scope 1 emissions associated with the diesel we use in our vessels,” she said. “We are exploring alternative low and zero-carbon fuels and associated technologies, recently installing a rapid charger onto our pontoons and trialling an electric RIB as part of the Innovate UK funded ZENOW project.

“We are also contributing to a feasibility study relating to battery storage coming online in September this year.”