Destination Gotland leads the way to a greener future with biogas from Gasum
One of Sweden's most well-known passenger shipping companies, Destination Gotland, has decided to increase its biogas fuel blend from one to ten percent in its gas-powered ships. By doing so, the company is reducing its carbon fuel emissions by 9,000 tons a year.
The shipping company Destination Gotland operates one of the most popular holiday routes in Sweden, with over 1.8M passengers yearly from mainland Sweden (ports of Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn) over to the island of Gotland. The company has now decided to increase the amount of biogas in their gas-powered ships and by doing so, leaping ahead in fighting carbon emissions at sea. Destination Gotland is leading the way in the passenger shipping industry, providing a cleaner and more environmentally friendly travel for their passengers.
Increasing biogas percentage in fuel blend cuts emissions dramatically
The company invested in two gas powered ships in 2019 and 2020. By switching from traditional maritime fuels to cleaner natural gas, emissions were cut by 20 percent right from the start. The engines of the ships can be run on both natural and biogas, or a blend of the two, to further reduce carbon emissions. Destination Gotland started out with a blend of one percent biogas in its natural gas composition, and the company is now increasing the blend with biogas to ten percent, further reducing its carbon emissions by 9,000 tons per year. By increasing the amount of biogas, the company provides a cleaner trip for its passengers already today and enables fossil free travels in the future.
“This is an incredibly important step for us, and I am proud and happy that we are involved and contribute to the development of shipping towards reduced emissions. We are determined to switch to a climate-smart Gotland trip no later than 2045, preferably much earlier,” says Christer Bruzelius, CEO of Destination Gotland.
Gasum provides both LNG and LBG for Destination Gotland ships
As one of the biggest producers of biogas in the nordics, Gasum is driving the biogas production to reach an industrial scale. Gasum will make 4 TWh of biogas available in the Nordics by 2025 through its own production and partners. This increase is the equivalent of all biogas used during the whole of 2019 in Sweden. The biogas production would allow a reduction in greenhouse gases by one million tons of carbon dioxide. The increase in the availability of biogas for shipping is a vital part of reaching the climate goals for Sweden.
“The steps Destination Gotland is taking to reduce its carbon footprint are truly inspirational and we at Gasum are happy to enable the vast reductions in both CO2 and particulate emissions by providing both natural and biogas. We hope that Destination Gotland, by being the first passenger shipping company to continuously use a ten percent blend of biogas in its natural gas fuel composition, will inspire more shipping companies to follow suit, says Jacob Granqvist, Maritime Sales Director from Gasum.
By increasing the fuel blend to 10 percent biogas, Destination Gotland is ahead of its own climate roadmap. The goal of the roadmap is to reduce the carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030 compared with levels in 2010.
“We are the first shipping company in the world, as far as we know, to do this on a continuous basis,” Bruzelius explains.
Gas is the key to reducing emissions in the maritime industry
According to EU statistics, the maritime industry is responsible for 2,5 percent of the emitted global greenhouse gases. Reducing the industry's carbon footprint by more efficient and sustainable fuels is vital for ensuring a more sustainable future.
The use of LNG reduces CO2 emissions by at least 20 percent compared to traditional heavy fuel oil. In addition, LNG removes other harmful emissions such as sulfur and particulate emissions and lowers nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 85 percent. LBG reduces carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90 percent compared with traditional fossil fuels.
