At a time when most shipping companies that have net zero carbon targets are looking out decades from now, one Brazilian tug and barge outfit has a more ambitious goal.
Hidrovias do Brasil, a Sao Paulo-based company whose fleets operate on the coasts and river systems of South America, is striving for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, less than seven years away.
And this year, the company has marked two milestones toward achieving that goal — the introduction of what it calls super convoys and of two pioneering electric pusher tugs.
The first is an efficiency project: restructuring part of its fleet into super convoys that will see a single pusher tug move 35 dry cargo barges at a time, rather than the typical 25. Each super convoy has the carrying capacity of a 70,000-dwt panamax bulk carrier.
The Sao Paulo-listed company has taken delivery early this year of two powerful pusher tugs that will help move the massive super convoys.
And chief executive Fabio Schettino told analysts in a recent conference call that Hidrovias has also taken delivery of two hybrid-electric pusher tugs that are part of the net zero strategy. Hidrovias has described the new vessels as the first pushboats in the world that can operate in a fully electric manner.
As he showed analysts a video of the first super convoy voyage, the executive spoke with pride of the efficiency gains that it represents.
“I feel that it is very important for you to see the size and scope of this operation, the beauty of what we do in the Amazon helping to build and develop not only a more efficient and competitive logistics, but most importantly a more sustainable one — the most sustainable in all transport modes available to deliver bulk cargo in the continent,” he said, according to a translated transcript
Even before the super convoys, Hidrovias sees South America’s navigable waterways as an underutilised opportunity to reduce emissions, estimating that a 25-barge convoy keeps 1,200 trucks off congested roads, according to a sustainability report.
A Hidrovias sustainability executive was not immediately available for an interview for this story to explain how the company aims to get to net zero. They were constructed at Brazil’s Belov Engenharia Shipyard, using a design from Canadian naval architecture and marine engineering firm Robert Allan.
In July, Hidrovias said in its annual sustainability report that its plan was to work this year and next to ensure its effort qualifies for the Science Based Targets initiative, which validates companies’ climate goals, after cementing its detailed plan and consolidating a carbon inventory to cover both direct emissions and indirect pollution known as Scope 3.
In addition to the hybrid electric pushboats and the super convoys, the report called for studying the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil as a fuel in the pushboats in its southern fleet.
The company is also aiming to place battery-charging infrastructure in its port terminal, as well as cutting fossil fuel consumption per net tonne-kilometre by 20% in 2025 compared to 2021 levels, according to the sustainability report.
Read more
- Cargill’s Eman Abdalla: ‘How can we achieve sustainability without having diversity?’
- Podcast: Cruise sector says ‘we need new fuels’ as carbon takes centre stage
- Editor’s Selection: Dacy urges caution, Li Li confesses to graft and Union Maritime swoops
- Green Seas: ‘Much remains up in the air’ as IMO hurtles toward carbon crunch session
- Podcast: Should shipping even consider the nuclear option to slash carbon?
- Editor’s selection: Product tanker bonanza blows, Europe’s shipowners get ‘cozy’ with Russia sanctions and Evergreen bumps bonuses
