South Korea’s leading shipper HMM Co. is stepping up efforts to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from its ships.

HMM Moves to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships
Caption: Containership Hyundai Pride - Image courtesy of Steve Greenwood

HMM signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Bio Energy Association, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., and the Korean Register of Shipping on Thursday to promote the substantiation of the eco-friendly fuel bio heavy oil.

Bio heavy oil is an alternative fuel to heavy oil that is made by using resources such as animal and plant oils and the residues of bio diesel processing as main ingredients.

HMM said it expects bio heavy oil to be designated for use on its vessels through additional R&D since it has similar properties to existing ship fuels.

Under the terms of the MOU, HMM will pursue mutual cooperation in the establishment of bio heavy oil quality standards and a fuel supply system.

To this end, the company plans to test the use of bio heavy oil-mixed fuel for its 13,100 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU)-class container ship currently in operation.

Hyundai Heavy and Korea Shipbuilding will be responsible for in-land testing of bio heavy oil by establishing related test facilities.

Source: Korea Bizwire