Trading giant Louis Dreyfus claims biofuel first on Wisby juice tanker

French commodities group Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) has revealed a 24% drop in emissions for a first juice tanker voyage on biofuel.

The project was carried out with Sweden’s Wisby Tanker, the owner of LDC’s upgraded chartered-in 39,000-dwt Essayra (built 2016).

The companies used a B30 biofuel-blended marine fuel for a 55-day return trip between LDC’s terminal in Ghent, Belgium, to its other terminal in Santos, Brazil, with a full cargo of not-from-concentrate and frozen concentrated orange juices.

“As part of LDC’s journey to help shape a net-zero economy, we are committed to contributing to shipping industry decarbonisation through a range of actions and initiatives — including to explore alternative fuel solutions,” said LDC’s global head of freight Sebastien Landerretche.

“This successful first trial reflects LDC’s ambition and know-how in the field, and our collaborative approach to tackling the industry’s energy transition,” he added.

LDC called the blend a practical and cleaner substitute to traditional very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO).

A variety of tests were conducted throughout the vessel’s voyage.

The trial showed a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of about 24%, or 723 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e).

LDC compensated the remaining GHG emissions through carbon credits sourced through its dedicated Carbon Solutions Platform, making this marine shipment the first carbon-neutral orange juice shipment globally, it said.

For this purpose, LDC chose to retire a total of 2,262 tCO₂e of third-party certified carbon credits from the Kariba REDD+ Project, which protects over 785,000 hectares of forest in Zimbabwe.

LDC said it is also working on a variety of shipping decarbonisation projects.

The group is testing wind assisted propulsion, solar, batteries and air lubrication systems.