In the United Kingdom, Isle of Wight ferry operator Red Funnel has trialled a biofuel consisting of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) with positive results. However, they are using caution before jumping into biofuel and renewable fuels over reliability fears. Red Funnel chairman Kevin George told PST, “We have no desire to be at the leading edge of technology and reliability is more important to us. We are monitoring [renewable sources of power] closely but because reliability is such a fundamental part of our service offering we are fairly reluctant to get involved with technology that does not have some degree of maturity.”
Red Funnel has nonetheless been looking into using a biofuel based on HVO, with trials of Green Biofuels’ Green D+ fuel on their ropax ship fleet. The Green Biofuels’ fuel uses a patented performance additive to HVO renewable diesel. The HVO is produced by Neste in Europe from waste and residue materials as well as plant oils such as palm oil and rapeseed oil.