Sustainable Fuels: Baseblue Helping Cruise Lines

Green Energy Solutions for Cruise Lines

Baseblue, a worldwide leader in energy solutions, helps cruise lines use greener energy by working with marine fuel providers, making their operations more efficient and sustainable for a positive environmental impact. 

Nicholas Argyrou, a key account director, said, “So, essentially, we plan how we’re going to refuel the vessel, we locate the fuel, and we hedge the fuel.”

Argyrou mentioned that the company specialises in supplying end-to-end refuelling services, from discovering the fuel to monitoring the bunkering and maintaining data track. 

The subsequent phase ensures that this complies with the EU Emissions Trading System (EU EST) and that emissions allowances are accounted for.

Cruising Industry’s Shift Towards Sustainability

Argyrou stated that the shift towards sustainability within the cruising industry started immediately after the pandemic. He said “And then when things started to go back to normal, we had the new wave of regulations coming in which has to do with emissions and how we can contribute to sustainable shipping or sustainable cruising. The customers, the actual guests on the ship, have demands, they want to feel that they are contributing to sustainable shipping and they demand to see that cruise lines are doing everything they can to be environmentally friendly, to leave the smallest possible carbon footprint, and also for them to be able to feel that they are not impacting the environment.”

According to Argyrou, methanol and LNG are types of fuel that will be used in the future to comply with the new regulations as the company is seeing an increasing demand for alternative fuels. 

Challenges in Fuel Supply

Providing fuel presents various challenges, even with conventional fuels. These include the availability of fuel, meeting regulations, the fuel’s quality, and its cost, Argyrou mentioned.

“Now, the first difficulty we have is locating the product and having it available and the right time and at the right place for cruise vessels. Again, logistically, it’s difficult for the cruise vessels. We have no time, so we have some hours sometimes to be able to deliver the product.”

He clarified that dealing with alternative fuels poses even more significant challenges.

“The only alternative fuels we can now use are biofuels and biofuels are limited right now; they’re not available in many ports,” he said. “They’re substantially more expensive than conventional fuels.”

“When we’re talking about the new fuels like methanol and possibly in the future things like ammonia, again, we can find methanol molecules but they are not great, so we have to find ways to source that, to find green methanol that is produced from renewable sources of energy because this is what the international community demands.”

Technology’s Role in Efficiency

He believes that technology is crucial for staying ahead, enabling smaller operators to achieve the same efficiency level as more prominent players. 

“At Baseblue, we have our own platform that is dedicated to cruise lines and allows our customers to do scheduling and it allows us to monitor their vessels in real time online. So essentially, our clients don’t need to worry about compliance, logistics and delivery as they have everything in one platform.”

Future Goals and Educational Initiatives

One of the goals for the company in 2024 is to shift the focus to helping their clients with the energy change. He added that the company are hosting seminars in order to educate clients around the issue of compliance and regulation.