By
Alice Chambers |
Costa Group, member of Carnival Corporation and owner of Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises, has started using biofuel onboard AIDAprima as part of its decarbonisation strategy.
The ship was bunkered with marine biofuel while docked in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 21 July 2022. The biofuel was provided by Dutch biofuel company GoodFuels and comprised marine gas oil and sustainable materials such as waste cooking oil.
Prior to using biofuel onboard AIDAprima, Costa Group worked with research partners at the University of Rostock in Germany to test biofuel propulsion in marine diesel engines to determine the feasibility of decarbonising ships that are already in service. This has now been shown to be possible.
Using biofuel is part of Costa Group’s strategy to operate in line with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal decarbonisation objectives. Other initiatives to decarbonise its fleet include being the first cruise company to introduce LNG propulsion (it now has four LNG-powered ships in service) and trialling the first fuel cell onboard AIDAnova. It has also commissioned a 10-megawatt battery storage system to be used onboard AIDAprima.