Bio-LNG bunkering project FirstBio2Shipping, developed by Attero and Bio-LNG Hub Wilp, will receive funding from the European Commission.
The European Union is investing €118 million ($140.3 million) into 32 small renewable energy projects from different European countries.
The supported projects have the goal to bring low-carbon technologies to the market in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, energy storage, and renewable energy.
Amongst them is the FirstBio2Shipping, the project of Dutch environmental company Attero and Bio-LNG Hub Wilp.
The project wants to decarbonise the maritime sector by demonstrating the first industrial plant producing renewable, low-carbon bio-liquified natural gas (bio-LNG) in a standardised and scalable fashion. This would enable the cost-effective substitution of heavy fuel oil.
It would include a gas treatment facility, a bio-LNG unit, and a carbon capture unit.
The demonstration plant is to produce six million normal cubic metres a year of biogas, 2,400 tonnes a year biomethane and 5,000 tonner a year of bio-CO2.
The plant would use a Nordsol-patented technology called iLNG.
FirstBio2Shipping would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 92 per cent compared to a reference scenario.
European Commission executive vice-president Frans Timmermans said: “With today’s investment, the EU is giving concrete support to clean tech projects all over Europe to scale up technological solutions that can help reach climate neutrality by 2050. The increase of the Innovation Fund proposed in the Fit for 55 Package will enable the EU to support even more projects in the future, speed them up, and bring them to the market as quickly as possible.”