GS Caltex, HMM launch biofuel-driven vessel

Energy company GS Caltex’s bio marine fuel is being used for an HMM vessel at a port in Busan on Friday. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]

Energy company GS Caltex said Friday it launched a pilot operation of a container ship that runs on bio marine fuel with shipping company HMM at a port in Busan.

The vessel with the 6,400 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) was powered by GS Caltex’s bio marine fuel, or the B30 Bio Marine.

Bio marine fuel is made with waste feedstock and is able to reduce carbon emission by more than 65 percent compared with fossil fuel-based bio marine fuel, according to GS Caltex. The fuel is more affordable than those made with methanol or ammonia, it added.

The vessel will depart from a port in the southern port city of Busan at 8 p.m. and sail to Singapore, India and South America.

“We produced, and are testing, biofuel-powered ship as the first oil refiner in Korea,” said GS Caltex Executive Vice President Lee Seoung-hoon in a statement. “We plan to expand the supply of biofuel-driven vessels to both domestic and global shipping companies that refuel their ships on Korean territorial waters.”

“We will continuously work on reducing greenhouse gas emission through the test operation of the country’s first biofuel-driven vessel,” according to HMM.

GS Caltex and HMM signed a memorandum of understanding in April to cooperate in expanding the usage of vessels that run on bio marine fuel.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]