United European Car Carriers (UECC) says it has performed the first-ever truck-to-ship bunkering of liquefied biomethane (LBM) in Spain.
The operation, which took place in the northwestern Spanish port of Vigo last month, saw LBM supplied by energy company Naturgy from a biomethane production plant in the surrounding Galicia province pumped directly from a tanker truck (approximately 20 metric tonnes (mt)) into the tanks of UECC’s multi-fuel LNG battery hybrid Pure Car and Truck Carrier, Auto Advance.
Speaking to Bunkerspot today (13 January), UECC’s Energy & Sustainability Manager, Daniel Gent, said the company has since taken a further two trucks and has two more deliveries planned in the next week.
Gent – who said UECC views Spain as a ‘promising market for biomethane production’ – also highlighted that the company expects to be the sole off taker of the bio-product of the 2,000 metric tonne capacity production plant.
The car carrier said that the delivery allows it 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.
‘We are trying to promote the growth of the wider small-scale LBM supply network,’ explained Gent.
UECC also noted that the fuelling represents the ‘first physical molecule delivery of the fuel’ - instead of mass balanced.