Terntank vessel bunkered with biomethane in Gothenburg

A vessel operated by Swedish shipping company Terntank has received domestically produced liquefied biomethane (LBM) from renewable energy supplier St1 and its venture St1 Biokraft in the Port of Gothenburg.

IMAGE: A container ship moored at the Goteborgs Hamn container terminal in the Port of Gothenburg, Sweden. Getty Images

The pilot LBM bunkering operation was carried out at quay 519 in the Port of Gothenburg on Terntank's oil and chemical tanker Tern Ocean.

Sweden-based gas infrastructure owner Nordion Energi was another collaborator in this pilot project, the Port of Gothenburg said in a statement.

LBM consists of approximately 99.8% methane. This composition allows it to be used as a drop-in fuel for LNG, similar to how biofuels are blended with marine gas oil (MGO) or very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO).

LNG-capable vessels can operate on pure LBM or LBM-LNG blends without requiring modifications. “Biomethane is a renewable fuel well-suited for the maritime sector,” the port authority said.

Scaling up LBM infrastructure across the Nordics

St1 Biokraft, a joint venture between St1 and Norwegian energy investors HitecVision and Aneo, has plans of scaling up LBM supply with several new production facilities planned across Sweden and Finland. The company’s current biogas and biomethane production capacity is over 550 gigawatt hours/year (GWh).

In 2026, Nordion Energi will separately build a liquefaction facility for biomethane at the Gothenburg port, which will be connected to the West Sweden gas grid.

“With the facility in place, a new opportunity will be created for biomethane producers connected to the gas network to reach the maritime market,” the port authority added.

By Aparupa Mazumder

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