Singapore’s Kenoil to test biobutanol marine fuel with its engines this year

Singapore’s Kenoil Marine Services will begin testing biobutanol blends with its current engines later this year, using biofuel produced from a pilot production plant its partner had invested in, its director said in an interview with S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The pilot plant – located in Johor Bahru, Malaysia – is expected to deliver its first biobutanol this month, produced from empty fruit bunch, a biomass waste sourced from its plantation partner IOI group.

This comes as Kenoil’s green energy solutions partner Ken Energy had inked an agreement with Singapore startup Green COP to produce up to B50 biofuel blends commercially by 2026, as part of an industrial alliance led by Kuok Maritime Group.

“We need to test the initial blend to the engine and that will take us a few months to see how it affects the internal engine of them. Then after that then we can scale to the next level of fuels like the B50,” said Ken Energy’s Managing Director Desmond Chong.

“In this whole process, we will have to work very closely with the engine maker as well, to see the kind of results that we get and how the engine performs,” added Chong, who is also the director of Kenoil Marine Services.
The blending of neat biobutanol into B30-50 biofuels is expected to be done mostly in existing storage tanks, he said.

In December last year, Kenoil Marine Services had carried out its first ship-to-ship bunker delivery of B24 bio-blended low sulfur marine gasoil in Singapore, adding that there is growing momentum towards biofuels.
Production pathway

Biobutanol is less hygroscopic and has a longer shelf life compared to ethanol and methanol, which makes it more suitable as a drop-in marine fuel, according to Green COP’s CEO Hanson Lee, who was also present at the interview.

However, producing biobutanol is typically more energy-intensive compared to other alternative fuels, making it difficult to commercialize, added Lee.

The team also holds a patent for their butanol production process, which reduces the energy required by around 90% compared to commercial processes that typically involves steam explosion or heavy acid, he said, adding that this also lowers production costs.

“Our technology can do everything in ambient temperature and pressure… I would say it’s an easier process, where you only require a simple environment to operate,” Lee said.

Moreover, Green COP’s technology does not limit its feedstock to a single type of plant-based waste, he added, which could help with lower cost in the long run as well.

“In biofuel production, a lot of people are worried about the security of the feedstock. So why we started with a solid base [feedstock], not the liquid base like FAME, UCOME because of a lot of markets that compete for the feedstock,” said Lee.

“The main limitation I will say the energy content is slightly lower as compared to FAME but we don’t see much issue.”

FAME, or Fatty Acid Methyl Ester, refers to biodiesel derived from renewable sources, while UCOME, or Used Cooking Oil Methyl Ester, refers to biodiesel derived from processed used cooking oil.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the price for UCOME FOB Straits (Singapore and Malaysia) at $1,090/mt, in line with lower indicative value and below an offer at $1,100/mt on May 3.
Scaling up production

Green COP and Ken Energy will look to set up at least one commercially operational plant in Southeast Asia by 2026, which will be separate from its current 4mt/month pilot biobutanol facility in Malaysia’s Johor.

The scaling up of their production capabilities will be aided by an up to $10 million (US$ 7.36 million) investment from the Coastal Sustainability Alliance led by Kuok Maritime Group.

“There’s a few interested parties and investors coming from the [Southeast Asia] region and it might not be one plant being set up, it could be two or three at the same time concurrently, so the typical ones of course the usual suspects Indonesia and Malaysia for a start, and there’s already interest from further afield,” said Kuok Maritime Group’s Coastal Sustainability Solutions senior general manager Bernard Liew.

In the meantime, Green COP and Ken Energy are also looking to get their ISCC certification and complete a lifecycle emission assessment this year, they added.

This comes as all new harbor crafts operating in the world’s largest bunkering port will have to be fully electric and capable of using B100 biofuel, or be compatible with net-zero fuels such as hydrogen by 2030.

Platts, part of S&P Global, assessed B24 bio-bunkers Singapore at $779.92/mt May 3, down $0.72 on the day.
Source: Platts