The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) has officially launched its highly anticipated report on FAME fingerprinting, a significant step forward in ensuring the authenticity and sustainability of biofuels used in the shipping industry. After months of development, analysis, and rigorous testing, this new report introduces a cutting-edge method that aims to tackle one of the key challenges in the transition to greener maritime fuel options: ensuring that biofuels are genuinely sustainable.
What is FAME Fingerprinting?
The report introduces FAME fingerprinting, a revolutionary technique that creates a unique “fingerprint” for Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME), a widely used biofuel in the shipping sector. This fingerprint helps identify the feedstock origins of FAME-based biofuels, providing a reliable method to trace the source of the raw materials used in their production.
Why is FAME Fingerprinting Important?
As the shipping industry increasingly turns to biofuels like FAME to meet sustainability goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, concerns have emerged regarding the legitimacy and sustainability of these biofuels. Industry stakeholders have raised alarms about the potential mislabeling of biofuels, especially with regard to their feedstock. Some biofuels, originally claimed to be made from recycled oils and fats, have raised suspicions that they might be produced from cheaper, less sustainable virgin oils instead.
FAME fingerprinting provides a solution to these concerns by offering a tool to detect fraud in the marine fuel supply chain. This technique ensures the authenticity of biofuels, providing physical validation that complements existing certification schemes. It guarantees that biofuels are truly contributing to greenhouse gas reduction efforts and supports the justification of the green premium for sustainable fuels. In doing so, FAME fingerprinting safeguards the integrity of the biofuel supply chain, fostering confidence among stakeholders and encouraging further investment in sustainable solutions.
How Was the FAME Fingerprinting Method Developed?
The development of FAME fingerprinting involved collaboration with VPS, an industry leader in fuel testing, who adapted existing testing methods to perform detailed sample analyses. Using a gas chromatograph with flame-ionisation detection (GC-FID), a standard instrument in fuel testing laboratories, VPS conducted a series of tests on various FAME samples. The unique fatty acid profile of each sample, linked to its specific feedstock, was preserved during the transesterification process—the chemical reaction that produces FAME from feedstocks.
This fingerprinting method allows the fatty acid profile of FAME to be compared against a database of known profiles. By identifying the feedstock origin, it becomes possible to trace the source of each biofuel sample with a high degree of accuracy.
The testing process is efficient, taking around an hour—comparable to current turnaround times for conventional marine fuel quality tests. Over the course of their studies, GCMD and VPS tested a variety of FAME samples from different suppliers, including materials such as virgin oils, used cooking oils, palm oil mill effluent, beef tallow, and food waste. This allowed them to confirm the ability of the fingerprinting method to successfully identify the feedstock origin for each sample.
GCMD FAME Fingerprinting – Download the Full Report
To delve deeper into the findings of this groundbreaking study and learn more about the potential applications of FAME fingerprinting in ensuring biofuel authenticity, download the full report now.
The release of this report marks a major step forward in the shipping industry’s efforts to decarbonise and transition to more sustainable fuel options. By introducing innovative methods like FAME fingerprinting, GCMD is helping to ensure that the adoption of biofuels in the maritime sector is transparent, traceable, and aligned with the industry’s green goals.
About the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD)
The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) was established as a non-profit organisation on 1 August 2021, with a clear mission: to support the decarbonisation of the maritime industry. GCMD strives to drive transformation by shaping industry standards, deploying innovative solutions, financing decarbonisation projects, and fostering collaboration across various sectors.
Founded by six key industry partners—BHP, BW Group, Eastern Pacific Shipping, Foundation Det Norske Veritas, Ocean Network Express, and Seatrium—GCMD is also supported by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), which funds qualifying research and development initiatives. Since its founding, GCMD has expanded its network of strategic partners, with companies such as bp, Hapag-Lloyd, Hanwha Ocean, and NYK Line joining the effort. To date, more than 100 centre- and project-level partners have come on board, contributing both financial resources and expertise to help accelerate the deployment of scalable low-carbon technologies and lower the barriers to their adoption.
GCMD has launched four significant initiatives aimed at addressing the technical and operational challenges within the maritime sector:
- Deploying ammonia as a marine fuel
- Developing an assurance framework for drop-in green fuels
- Unlocking the carbon value chain through shipboard carbon capture and the articulation of the captured carbon dioxide value chain
- Closing the data-financing gap to encourage the wider adoption of energy efficiency technologies
Strategically located in Singapore, the world’s largest bunkering hub and busiest transshipment port, GCMD is perfectly positioned to lead the charge in advancing the decarbonisation of the maritime industry on a global scale.
Source GCMD