Chevron is chartering its first hybrid electric bunker tanker, the ‘Marine Dynamo’, owned by V-Bunkers and based in Singapore port.
The bunker tanker is expected to consume approximately 20% less fuel compared to a conventional tanker as it goes about its operations, which can reduce emissions and costs. The barge provides an opportunity to assess wider adoption of hybrid vessels,
Nayab Karimi, trading manager for fuels, Asia Pacific, said: “It’s also helping us take a step forward in our objective to deliver lower carbon and higher returns.”
Jennifer Chao, Chevron’s Asia Pacific commercial marine manager, said: “We’re looking for opportunities like this to understand new technologies, test capabilities and collect data to determine if there is broader applicability for our global operations.”
The vessel has an electric power system as well as an engine that runs on fuel. It will supplement with electricity during periods of high consumption to allow the engines to reduce fuel use. Instead of three auxiliary engines, as a conventional fuelling barge this size would have, the barge has two auxiliary engines along with a battery bank and an electric power distribution system.
Current technology does not allow barges to run completely on electricity, and the batteriesm being almost the size of a 20ft container, would take up too much space on a bunker vessel.
Varun Kohli, Chevron term charterer Asia Pacific said: “As technology comes along and batteries become smaller and more efficient, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we’ll have bunker tankers able to operate fully on batteries,”
The vessel has the potential to use onshore charging facilities included in Singapore’s electrification plans. Chevron believes that powering up batteries without the need for fuel could further reduce fossil fuel consumption in this hard-to-abate sector.
Image: ‘Marine Dynamo’ bunker vessel (source: Chevron Marine Products)
