Hapag-Lloyd takes largest ship-to-ship liquefied biomethane delivery to date

Titan Clean Fuels, a leading supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied biomethane to shipping customers, and STX Group, a global leader in environmental commodities trading and climate solutions, announced April 9 having successfully concluded a ship-to-ship bunkering of 2,200 metric tons of liquefied biomethane to a Hapag-Lloyd container vessel in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

This transaction marks Hapag-Lloyd’s entry into using liquefied biomethane as sustainable shipping fuel, representing the largest ship-to-ship bunkering operation known till date.

STX Group and Titan Clean Fuels have collaborated to liquify, store and deliver mass-balanced biomethane in Zeebrugge, Belgium, under certification by the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification System, which is fully recognized under the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive.

“This pioneering deal demonstrates that bunkering large quantities of liquefied biomethane is possible and scalable,” said Jan Christensen, the senior director of fuel purchasing at Hapag-Lloyd. “However, there is still more progress required regarding the necessary infrastructure and the regulatory framework. For us, bunkering liquefied biomethane is another measure in our step-by-step approach to further decarbonize our operations to reach our goal of becoming net zero by 2045.”

Caspar Gooren, Titan Clean Fuels’ director of renewable fuels, added, “Titan’s Alice Cosulich bunker vessel has successfully delivered liquefied biomethane to Hapag-Lloyd’s Brussels Express container ship. We’d like to thank all the partners involved for another smooth operation. We have been encouraged by the demand for liquefied biomethane so far, and this major bunkering represents a significant step in shipping’s clean-fuels transition. Titan recognizes the LNG pathway via liquefied biomethane and renewable eMethane as a practical, sustainable and cost-effective route to net-zero shipping emissions available today. We work every day towards full regulatory compliance for shipowners and operators of deep-sea ships.”

Sead Keric, STX Group’s managing partner of renewable gas, said, “We congratulate Hapag-Lloyd on this landmark deal in the shipping sector. This transaction is a proof of how liquefied biomethane can be a powerful tool on the path to a lower-carbon transport sector. At STX Group, we are proud to consistently be at the forefront of environmental markets and this is yet another example of how we are building long-term value through high-impact use cases.”

Liquefied biomethane, also known as bio-LNG, is an established sustainable bunker fuel that can even be net-zero emissions depending on the feedstock and is commercially available in Europe, Asia and North America.

Biomethane is produced from sustainable biomass feedstocks such as industrial and agricultural waste streams that do not compete with food production.

These are nationally or regionally defined, for example by the EU (RED II) in Europe and the EPA (Renewable Fuel Standard) in the U.S.

Liquefied biomethane can be delivered in the form of physical molecules or “mass balanced” whereby biomethane is injected into the gas network and transported to liquefaction plants and LNG terminals using the existing infrastructure through a system of mass balancing.

Mass balancing is expected to be a feature on many alternative-fuel pathways and offers a practical way of delivering the volumes of clean marine fuel the shipping industry requires.