Boskalis Shuns LNG for Biofuel
Dutch dredging and lifting contractor Boskalis says it is moving beyond fossil fuels, including relatively clean LNG, to a biofuel blend for its offshore work on behalf of electricity grid operator TenneT.
It has been contracted to install the export cable to the Borssele offshore wind farm, which will be connected to TenneT's Dutch high-voltage grid. During that project, Boskalis said September 25 it will run its vessels on a biofuel blend of up to 30%, adding that as of last week its 2003-built dredger Prins der Nederlanden is running on such a blend. (Banner photo shows the dredger, and is courtesy of Boskalis)
TenneT senior manager offshore Marco Kuijpers said: "We are working towards making our operations climate-neutral by 2025. So we warmly applaud Boskalis' initiative to use a biofuel blend to power its vessels. This results in an even more environmentally conscious approach to a sustainable project like the Borssele offshore grid."
Boskalis recently signed a partnership deal with biofuel supplier GoodFuels that aims at reducing by 35% the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by the Boskalis fleet/equipment in the Netherlands in the next five years. Various sea trials by Boskalis have shown that sustainable biofuels lead to an impressive reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 90% compared to fossil fuels, and are "more effective than ...LNG". It added that on a similar recent project, it handled dredging for six months using a B50 biofuel blend, consisting of 50% residual products from the paper industry. It now uses that fuel to power not just its vessels but also its dry earthmoving equipment and trucks in the Netherlands.
It's possible that the age of Prins der Nederlanden may have made its conversion to LNG less economically-attractive. The country has competing LNG bunkering infrastructure and marketers.