PRIO delivers first B100 stem in Portugal

Portuguese biofuel producer PRIO Energy has started supplying B100 (100% biofuel) in Portugal and expects biofuel bunker demand to pick up pace.

PHOTO: Porto Santo Line’s RoRo vessel Lobo Marinho. PRIO

It supplied B100 biofuel to two vessels, Lobo Marinho and Funchalense 5, last week.

The two vessels recently installed new blending systems at West Sea shipyard in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. These vessels have separate tanks for conventional fuel and biodiesel, said Telmo Ferreira, PRIO’s head of emerging businesses and shipping.

With this system, they can adjust and optimise the percentage of biodiesel with the fuel and related blend onboard, he explained.

“But they can run on B100” solely as well, Ferreira added.

Notably, no engine modifications are required for vessels to use biofuel.

The B100 biofuel was produced at PRIO’s biodiesel plant in Aveiro, within the Port of Aveiro.

Lobo Marinho, a roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessel operated by Porto Santo Line, connects Madeira with Porto Santos, while the cargo ship Funchalense 5 transports goods between mainland Portugal and Madeira Island. 

According to PRIO, this marks “the first time in Portugal” that ships are powered by B100 biofuel.

The project has been co-financed by Portugal’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) under the Ecological Navigation Programme.

Also, this month, PRIO supplied a B30 biofuel blend to Germany’s Briese Chartering twice—first to the cargo vessel BBC Lisbon at the Port of Aveiro and then to the cargo vessel ANNA at the Port of Leixões.

By Tuhin Roy

Please get in touch with comments or additional info to news@engine.online