Norden looks to power ships with cooking oil

Did you know that the spare cooking oil in your cupboard could be used to power an entire vessel? Danish shipping firm Norden is looking to turn this everyday item into a pioneer for net-zero freight.

Biofuels come in many flavours, ranging from wood chips to food waste, and all offer interesting possibilities for low-fuel travel. While not all biofuels are low-carbon, much of the legwork in the industry in recent years has been about using it as a sustainable - and faster to produce - alternative to fossil fuels.

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Reportedly able to be used without needing changes to existing engine design, the use of biofuel could help reduce the carbon emissions of companies who rely on international shipping to carry their goods, parts or services overseas to customers.

The energy transition has forced many companies to look at sustainability, not just from their own production, but over the entire lifecycle of a project. This means that getting it to customers, either through shipping or transport, must be taken into account.

Cooking oil is traditionally made from vegetables, be they olives, peanuts or safflower, although less environmentally-friendly edible oils, made from animals and palm oil, do exist.

There also remains an option to create oils from new sustainable sources or directly from the consumer, through recycling.

“Our ambition is to help our customers reduce carbon emissions in the supply chain. To this end we are very proud to offer an eco-friendly freight transport using pure, carbon-neutral biofuel,” said Adam Nielsen, Head of Logistics and Climate Solutions.

“We believe there is a growing demand for carbon-neutral transportation from our customers – particularly those with ambitious sustainability goals,” added Nielsen. “We are ready to support those customers that wish to take the leap to an environmentally-friendly form of freight transport.” 

Cooking oil has long been touted as a form of biofuel and has been used in the production of biodiesel for decades.

Several projects have sprung up in recent years to utilise it, with other shipping firms. Other shipping firms have suggested using cooking oil and it could even see use in creating sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for air freight.

Waste-to-energy schemes are all the rage in industry, partially due to them not requiring extra infrastructure, giving life to waste that would otherwise be dumped, and providing additional avenues for recycling.

Norden is aiming to continue scaling up its production of cooking oil biofuels as the technology and infrastructure become more advanced.

It has already made a pledge to become net-zero by 2050 alongside much of the shipping industry. It recently enlisted the help of biofuel specialist Federica Conti to aid in its green transition.

“The exciting thing about advanced biofuel is that it’s turning waste product into energy. In the future, we will see more ships powered on animal manure and sewage sludge," she said in a statement.

“It’s been an interesting journey going from research to application and figuring out the challenges of implementing biofuels in the ‘real world,” she added.

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Much of the carbon in biofuels carbon has already been emitted by the time it reaches the stage where it will be used. Other types of biofuel can have their feedstock readily replenished, which means they can also be considered a form of renewable energy.

“We see biofuel as a very important transition fuel on our journey to zero-carbon shipping as it can be used on board our current vessels to make an immediate reduction on carbon emissions,” said Henrik Røjel, the head of Norden's decarbonisation unit.

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