[Courtesy of HMM]
SEOUL -- A container ship run by HMM, a major shipping company in South Korea, has made a successful trial voyage using marine bio-heavy fuel. It was South Korea's first demonstration of applying bio-heavy oil used in domestic power plants to a ship as a fossil fuel substitute.
During a 10-day trial voyage that began on December 1 from South Korea's southern port city of Busan to the Panama Canal, HMM said the 13,000-TEU HMM Dream tested a diesel generator powered by bio heavy fuel and obtained successful results. The twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships.
It was South Korea's first demonstration of applying bio-heavy oil used in domestic power plants to ships. "The successful outcome of this demonstration will play a crucial role in speed up the commercialization of bio-heavy oil for ships in the future," an unnamed HMM official was quoted as saying.
Bio-heavy oil is made from animal and plant oils and production resides from diesel fuel. The Korea Bioenergy Association was in charge of supplying bio-heavy oil for testing and analyzing ingredients. South Korea's Hyundai shipbuilding group was responsible for providing a test engine and building test facilities. Korean Register (KR), a maritime classification society, evaluates data derived from a test voyage.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a U.N. Maritime safety agency, has adopted mandatory energy-efficiency measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships. Tightened regulations prompted South Korean shipbuilders to research and develop eco-friendly smart ship technologies and maritime engines using sustainable fuels.
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