This month, SEA-LNG member Titan and United European Car Carriers (UECC) are collaborating on a series of major liquefied biomethane (LBM) bunkering operations in the Port of Zeebrugge. Titan will bunker ISCC-EU certified mass balanced LBM, also known as bio-LNG, to all of UECC’s LNG dual fuel car carriers. 

These pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) will use 100% LBM as part of UECC’s ‘Green Gas Month’, an initiative that supports its wider ‘Sail for Change’ sustainability programme. Three of the ships also feature battery hybrid technology, further enhancing their environmental performance. 

Due to the biomethane waste feedstock, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential from this clean fuel use is significant. In ‘Green Gas Month’ alone, UECC calculates the Well-to-Wake emissions reductions will exceed 8,000 metric tonnes of CO2e. 

The GHG emissions reductions generated from these major LBM bunkering operations will be available to UECC customers through a CO2 registry that it opened in January 2024. This registry allows UECC to transfer the environmental benefits of clean fuel use to charterers in a transparent, traceable and independently verified manner across its entire supply chain. 

Daniel Gent, Energy & Sustainability Manager at UECC, commented: “Through the use of biomethane, ‘Green Gas Month’, and ‘Sail for Change’ more broadly, we are providing our customers with a great springboard to further their own decarbonisation strategies. With progressive automakers focusing on cleaner cars, we expect them to want to reduce their scope three emissions and ship those cars sustainably – which is what we can deliver in collaboration with Titan right now. 

Liquefied biomethane can be transported, stored and bunkered in ports using the established infrastructure as outlined in our new liquified biomethane fact sheet. In addition, liquified e-methane – a key stepon the LNG pathway to net-zero shipping – is chemically identical to LNG and can be used on current and existing LNG infrastructure. This is explored in more depth in our new liquefied e-methane fact sheet.