ZEMBA deal will see Gasum bunker Hapag-Lloyd ships with 20,000 tonnes of bio-LNG

Photo: Hapag-Lloyd

Nordic region energy company Gasum Oy is to supply Hapag-Lloyd containerships with liquefied biomethane (bio-LNG) over a two-year tender period. Earlier this year, Hapag-Lloyd won the first tender by the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) for ocean shipping based on waste-based bio-LNG that achieves at least a 90% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Established in 2023, ZEMBA is an initiative of Cargo Owners for Zero Emission Vessels (coZEV) and facilitated by the Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program.

Through the tender deal, more than a dozen ZEMBA members including founding members Amazon, Patagonia, and Tchibo alongside Bauhaus, Brooks Running, DB Journey, Green Worldwide Shipping, lululemon, Meta, New Balance, Nike, REI Co-op, and Sport-Thieme have collectively committed to purchase the environmental attributes associated with over 1 billion twenty-foot shipping container-miles of zero-emission shipping on a route from Singapore to Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2025-2026.

Gasum is supplying Hapag-Lloyd with the bio-LNG needed to fulfill the requirements of the ZEMBA tender.

“This agreement demonstrates that the green transition in the maritime transport sector is picking up speed. Gasum is proud to enable this transition by supplying shipping companies with bio-LNG in the Northern European region,” says Jacob Granqvist, VP, maritime, Gasum. “We need all-hands-on-deck to drive the effort, and using bio-LNG to fuel maritime transports is an effective way to reduce emissions already today, rather than in a distant future”,

“We are confident in our partnership with Gasum to supply waste-based bio-LNG in line with the strict sustainability requirements of ZEMBA and the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII). This agreement is a stepping-stone towards our target to be net-zero carbon by 2045”, says Jan Christensen, senior director of fuel purchasing at Hapag-Lloyd.

Gasum’s biomethane is produced from waste feedstocks such as biowaste, sewage sludge, manure and other industrial and agricultural side streams. The residual solids and liquids created in the biogas production process are further processed and used as, for example, fertilizers in agriculture or raw material in industrial processes.

Gasum is able provide bio-LNG bunkering services to all shipping companies that have vessels running on liquefied natural gas, as LNG and bio-LNG are fully interchangeable. They can also be mixed at any ratio.