Sustainable marine fuels are fuels that minimize carbon emissions relative to conventional fossil fuels without compromising range or performance of recreational boats. Also known as drop-in fuels, they require no changes or modifications to the current boat fuel system and can be mixed with any currently available fossil derived fuels .
Sustainable Marine Fuels offer many benefits to the end user and the environment:
Boaters demand high quality fuels that are compatible with both older and newer boats. Drop-in fuels are a very easy and cost-effective way to ensure optimum engine performance while also minimizing carbon emissions.
Although recreational boating accounts for only 0.7% and 0.4% of transportation greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and Europe respectively, the recreational marine industry has come together to find solutions to further reduce its environmental impact. Sustainable marine fuels have been identified as a significant driver to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the global fleet of 30-million registered recreational powerboats.
Renewable diesel fuel also referred to as Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is chemically identical to fossil diesel. It is a drop-in replacement that performs just like fossil diesel and can be used without any modifications to the engine or boat fuel system and can be blended at any ratio.
Classified as a drop-in renewable diesel fuel, these advanced biofuels meet ASTM D975 and EN 15490 specifications in compliance with OEM standards. Unlike biodiesel, renewable diesel fuel offers reliable cold weather performance, and is free of sulfur, oxygen and aromatic compounds.
Renewable Diesel Fuel can reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 75% relative to conventional fossil-derived diesel fuel.
Renewable feedstocks such as corn, sugar cane, or other advanced cellulosic derived sugars are fermented to create an alcohol. The biologically derived alcohol, such as ethanol or biobutanol, is then used as a building block to create an ethanol-free gasoline blend-stock. When mixed with conventional gasoline, these renewable fuels reduce the quantity of fossil fuels required for each gallon of finished gasoline.
Partially Renewable Gasoline can reduce GHG emissions up to 30% more than E10 at the same renewable content.
Biobutanol is a high energy content alcohol that is produced in a fermentation process similar to beer and wine production. Unlike ethanol, biobutanol does not phase-separate in the presence of water, making it a very stable fuel for recreational boats and engines. Biobutanol lowers evaporative emissions and, unlike ethanol, does not require a pollution-waiver from EPA summertime gasoline vapor pressure standards. Biobutanol blended at 16.1% by volume has double the renewable energy (RIN) compared to 10% ethanol (E10) and helps lower green house gas emissions.
Biobutanol can reduce GHG emissions by up to 30% relative to conventional fossil-derived gasoline.
Electricity-based eFuels and biogenic synthetic fuels are the next major step in achieving carbon neutrality. eFuels are produced by combining captured carbon from the atmosphere with green hydrogen in a synthesis process known as Fischer-Tropsch. These fuels result in a truly carbon-neutral liquid fuel that is a 1:1 replacement for gasoline and diesel. Significant investment is ongoing in the further development of these game-changing fuels.
Recreational boats are considerably different than most other transportation sectors, including automotive (on-road vehicles). Unlike automobiles, which are relied on to get from point A to B, recreational boats are used for leisure and vary significantly in not only how, but how often, they are used (e.g., many gasoline-powered recreational boats are operated an average of 35 to 48 hours per year).
Due to the diversity of the types of boats in use and the varied experiences sought by boating consumers from fishing to watersports to cruising, there is no universal, “one-size-fits-all” approach to decarbonize recreational boats. As a result, in addition to current internal combustion and fossil fuel-powered boats, the industry must consider a portfolio of technologies, including: sustainable marine fuels, hybrid-electric, battery-electric, hydrogen, advanced hull design, and other advanced technologies.
There are several ways Sustainable Marine Fuels can reduce carbon and fossil fuel consumption from recreational boating. Click here for an overview of the multiple ways sustainable marine fuels can reduce carbon emissions.