Fleettracker supports BDN-based reporting
Admittedly, we’ve been a bit quiet over the last few weeks. But we were busy. Fleettracker now supports BDN-based reporting for Fuel EU Maritime. And implementing that wasn’t as easy as originally thought. We did it – thank you, team!
For those of you who deal with Fuel EU on a daily basis in the shipping company, this is nothing new. BDN stands for Bunker Delivery Note and means the paper that documents which fuel has been bunkered on board. In the past, this was usually more of a receipt. In the future, the BDN is actually a crucial document to save the shipping company money.
Fuel EU Maritime sets new standards when it comes to dealing with Green House Gas (GHG) emissions in shipping. The predecessor MRV/ETS (“Monitoring, Reporting and Verification” and “Emission Trading System”) is about emitting less CO2 or paying for each ton of CO2. Fuel EU is about gradually switching to lower-emission fuel or paying penalties for using higher-emission fuel.
The easiest way to compare it is with a diet: MRV/ETS means eating less. Fuel EU means eating low-calorie food. Fuel EU is therefore about a “nutrition change” for shipping. Which is certainly the more sustainable approach in the long term.
And what does this all have to do with BDN? Well, lower emissions fuel means that in the future biofuels or e-fuels will be the method of choice to reduce Fuel EU penalties. Unfortunately, biofuels are not uniform in terms of their GHG emissions. Each fuel may have its own characteristics.
The BDN documents the relevant factors needed to calculate the emission characteristics of the fuel. So basically a BDN is the calorific value table on the cereal pack. The BDN therefore becomes the basis for calculating the Fuel EU penalties you may have to pay. And that is the reason why we have changed the way of consumption reporting in Fleettracker.
Unfortunately, this means additional work for the crew on board to report the data. But we are working on making this easier for the people on board. Stay tuned.
