Louis Dreyfus completes biofuel trial on 1st carbon-neutral juice shipment

Photo: Louis Dreyfus Company B.V.

Louis Dreyfus Company B.V. announced April 29 the successful completion of a biofuel trial carried out in collaboration with Wisby Tanker AB, Sweden (Wisby Tanker) on one of LDC’s upgraded juice vessels, MV Essayra. The company used a B30 blended marine biofuel for the first time to sail from LDC’s terminal in Ghent, Belgium, to LDC’s other terminal in Santos, Brazil, and back again with a full cargo of not-from-concentrate and frozen concentrated orange juices, over a 55-day period.

“As part of LDC’s journey to help shape a net-zero economy, we are committed to contributing to shipping-industry decarbonization through a range of actions and initiatives—including to explore alternative-fuel solutions,” said Sébastien Landerretche, LDC’s global head of freight. “Result of the coordination between LDC’s carbon-solutions, freight and juice platforms, as well as Wisby Tanker, this successful first trial reflects LDC’s ambition and know-how in the field, and our collaborative approach to tackling the industry’s energy transition.”

A variety of tests were conducted throughout the vessel’s voyage to measure the impact of the B30 biofuel blend on the ship’s fuel system and overall performance. The results show that B30 is a practical and cleaner substitute to traditional very-low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), reducing voyage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by about 24 percent, or 723 metric tons of CO2-equivalent (tCO2e).

LDC compensated the remaining 76 percent of GHG emissions of the voyage through carbon credits sourced through its dedicated carbon-solutions platform, making this marine shipment the first carbon-neutral orange juice shipment globally. For this purpose, LDC chose to retire a total of 2,262 tCO2e of third-party certified carbon credits from the Kariba REDD+ Project, which protects more than 785,000 hectares of forest in Zimbabwe, supports local communities and is certified under internationally recognized carbon standards.

In addition to this biofuel trial, LDC is working on a variety of shipping-decarbonization projects, leveraging technologies such as wind-assisted propulsion, solar, batteries and air lubrication, aiming to improve vessel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions from its shipping.