The sea-going vessel Fure West, a chemicals and oil tanker of the Swedish shipping company FureTank, was bunkered with liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Port of Amsterdam this week, notably the first sea-going vessel of the Gothia Alliance to bunker with LNG in Amsterdam. The bunkering took place over 12 hours on the Groene Kade in the Amerikahaven, the designated location for safe truck-to-ship bunkering of LNG.
Fure West is the first sea-going vessel of FureTank that has a dual-fuel engine. Built in 2006, the ship was converted in 2015 to run on LNG using a Caterpillar marine-fitted 7 cylinder M 46 dual-fuel platform, with each cylinder offering 900 kW of rated power. Caterpillar also supplied the complete gas system for the tanker, including bunker stations, 2x LNG tanks measuring 4.15 meters by 24 meters and the vaporizer.
Titan LNG, an Amsterdam company trading in LNG, transported the fuel in five tankers from the GATE terminal to the Amerikahaven and ensured that the bunkering would be safely accomplished.
LNG in Amsterdam
Inland navigation vessels have been bunkering with LNG in the Amerikahaven since 2013. As a result of recent changes to the quay, sea-going vessels can now also bunker there. The facility is part of the sustainability agenda of the company and the vision of creating a metropolitan port that is continually improving, becoming faster, smarter and cleaner.
Marleen van de Kerkhof, State Harbour Master: “Port of Amsterdam is fully committed to making shipping sustainable. This is needed to provide a sustainable solution to the demands of logistics and regulation. The facilitation of safe bunkering operations with new and cleaner shipping fuels is a good example of this. The Groene Kade is now a temporary facility. Together with various partners such as Titan LNG, we are looking to create a more permanent bunker facility that is both safe and efficient. Today’s bunkering operation was a successful first step in this direction.”
Niels den Nijs, CEO of Titan LNG, was also pleased with this milestone for the port and his company: ”
Commenting on the operation, Michael Schaap, Commercial Director Marine, Titan LNG, said: “We are proud to be the first company to bunker LNG to a sea-going vessel in the Port of Amsterdam, and look forward to supplying more vessels with LNG as a fuel in the near future. Our aim is to build on this experience to further streamline operations and to make bunkering of LNG just as common as delivering traditional oil product bunker fuel.”
Cleaner shipping
Using LNG as a fuel has huge benefits for the environment. Sulphur and particle emissions would be reduced to almost zero, and nitrogen oxide emission is cut by 85-90 percent. LNG may also reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
(Source: Port of Amsterdam, Titan LNG)
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