United European Car Carriers (UECC) has performed the first-ever ship refuelling operation in Spain with a truck-borne shipment of liquefied biomethane (LBM) to widen access to supplies of the sustainable fuel and bolster the country’s circular economy.
In the event at the Port of Vigo, overseen by the president of the port, LBM supplied by green energy developer Naturgy from a biomethane production plant in the surrounding Galicia province was pumped directly from a tanker truck into the tanks of UECC’s multi-fuel LNG battery hybrid Pure Car and Truck Carrier, Auto Advance.
UECC Energy and Sustainability Manager Daniel Gent said: “This is an important step as it is the first time LBM has been delivered by truck to ship in the whole of Spain. We view Spain as a promising market for biomethane production and so it’s great to get this first delivery over the line.”
The delivery allows the sustainable carrier in the European shortsea ro-ro trade to diversify its regional sources of supply for LBM beyond its main hub of Zeebrugge where it has a long-term supply agreement in place with Titan Clean Fuels.
Gent said: “We are trying to promote the growth of the wider small-scale LBM supply network.”
Another aspect of this diversification is that it represents the first physical molecule delivery of the fuel – instead of mass balanced – as UECC explores multiple alternative delivery pathways to broaden its LBM portfolio.
UECC is boosting uptake of the fuel, also known as bioLNG, in line with expansion of its Sail for Change sustainability initiative launched in 2024 in which LBM is being bunkered on the company’s five dual and multi-fuel LNG PCTCs for several major vehicle manufacturers to cut their Scope 3 emissions.
As well as contributing to its customers’ decarbonisation efforts, UECC is providing fuel demand to support renewable energy development by Naturgy, which is involved in numerous innovative projects to convert agricultural and livestock waste into biomethane, strengthening the regional circular economy.
Naturgy, in a joint venture with Reganosa and Repsol, is looking to produce 1TWh/yr of biomethane from treatment of animal slurry and other waste sources, which would cover 7% of Galicia’s annual gas import requirements and result in a reduction of 500,000t CO2e per year.
LBM is seen bu UECC as an excellent fuel with good sustainability criteria that delivers a reduction of around 5t CO2e per tonne supplied.
Gent added: “The production facility uses carbon capture and the feedstock used means it has an overall negative carbon intensity on a well-to-wake basis.”
This means that LBM is well aligned with fuel requirements under FuelEU Maritime (FEUM) that is intended to promote uptake of alternative low-carbon fuels. UECC is now reaping the benefits of its proactive efforts to evaluate and adopt such fuels to generate a compliance surplus under the new regulation.
Gent said: “Securing additional sources of renewable fuel contributes to our decarbonisation pathway, which includes not only FEUM compliance, lower EU ETS costs and increased CII rating, but is also a key element of our corporate long-term sustainability strategy to hit net zero by 2040. We hope the LBM truck delivery in Spain will be the first of many.”
Image: Delivery of LBM to UECC ro-ro in Spain (source: UECC)
