Shipping is the backbone of global trade and commerce facilitating 80% of global trade and responsible for 3% of the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.

Long-haul shipping is considered to be a hard-to-abate sector, with limited possibilities for electrification opposed to land-based transport. To reduce emissions, parts of the maritime sector has during the last two decades shifted to LNG fuel, to reduce emissions of CO2 and other pollutants associated with heavy fuel oils and marine diesel. However, the LNG is primarily still from fossil origin and will therefore not lead to net decarbonization of the shipping industry.

A CO2 neutral alternative is LBG (Liquefied Biogas), based on liquefied biogas produced by anaerobic digestion of biomasses. These biomasses can originate from wastewater sludge, agricultural waste products, or organic industrial waste streams. In contrast to ammonia, LBG is a ready-to-use renewable drop in fuel, which can be used in existing ship engines. It can therefore be readily implemented. Although the European biogas sector is expanding rapidly, LBG is only estimated to be able to cover a fraction of the total energy demand for shipping fuels. Biomass alone will therefore not be able to cover the use of the shipping sector.
The concept proposed by PowerLBG will use hydrogen produced from local wind turbines and biogas CO₂ as feedstock for synthesis of LBG. A mature PowerLBG technology will hence be able to valorize the biogenic CO₂ from biogas plants and almost double the LBG output. Several aspects make the PowerLBG technology attractive: (1) It offers a direct utilization of the CO₂ in the biogas without prior capture or separation of CO₂; (2) it allows on-site methanation omitting the need for CO₂ pipelines and transport; (3) it utilizes the microorganisms already present in the existing biogas reactor, reducing the cost for infrastructure and catalysts.