By
Rebecca Gibson |
Wasaline is to trial operating its ro-pax ferry Aurora Botnia using certified biogas one day per week between 13 October and the end of December 2023.
Aurora Botnia runs primarily on LNG fuel but will switch to biogas for the four departures it offers between Vaasa in Finland and Umeå in Sweden every Friday. This will mean that 18 per cent of Wasaline’s weekly sailings will be climate neutral.
Trialling biogas will also help Wasaline to prepare for the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, which will enter force on 1 January 2024 and require all shipowners sailing in the European Economic Area to monitor, report and pay allowances for their carbon dioxide emissions.
“Aurora Botnia is the world’s most environmentally friendly ferry today, but our efforts to reduce our climate footprint continue,” said Peter Ståhlberg, managing director at Wasaline. “This is a pilot project to measure the interest of our cargo owners and passengers, and whether it is financially viable to continue biogas purchases.”
The biogas fuel will be supplied by Gasum.
“Biogas is one of the already available concrete pathways to reducing emissions in maritime transport and travel and it’s fantastic that Wasaline is now setting on this pathway to provide lower emissions services to its customers,” said Jacob Granqvist, vice president of maritime at Gasum. “Our goal is to continuously increase biogas availability to our customers in the coming years.”
Wasaline hopes to further develop this concept in collaboration with its customers beyond December 2023.