Bulker Burns VLSFO Co-Processed With Cashew Nutshell Liquid
A Singapore first delivered at least 120 tonnes of CO2eq savings with no change to vessel operations
Singapore has seen its first bunkering of very low sulphur fuel oil co-processed with cashew nutshell liquid, a residue of cashew processing that has had almost no role in marine fuel until now. Vitol Bunkers supplied the parcel.
The delivery went into a bulker earlier this year and was burned across a working commercial voyage rather than a demonstration leg, which is the part that carries weight. The operation cut at least 120 tonnes of CO2 equivalent while asking nothing of the ship's crew or machinery.
The vessel was the Scion Mathilda, an 82,144-dwt bulker built in 2024 and at that point under Atlantic Lloyd management. She lifted 246.5 tonnes of co-processed VLSFO at Singapore, of which 34.5 tonnes was the CNSL component and the balance conventional fuel. Olam Agri's ocean freight arm bought it. The ship changed hands in June 2026 and now trades as Magic Saturn.
From Singapore the voyage ran to Caofeidian in China to load, on to Rotterdam, and then in ballast to Barcarena in Brazil. Across the whole passage she burned 1,354 tonnes of conventional VLSFO, 101 tonnes of MGO and 34.1 tonnes of the co-processed grade.
Nothing was logged against the fuel's performance. Its measured greenhouse gas intensity came out at 2.02 gCO2eq/MJ, which is where the 120-tonne saving against a conventional equivalent comes from, and it required no extra handling or treatment on board.
"The successful deployment of this product, achieving verified greenhouse gas mitigation alongside ensuring operational integrity, serves as a definitive proof" of the concept, said Martin Fynbo, head of bunkers at Olam Agri's ocean freight business. "This milestone provides validation to a traditionally risk-averse sector, demonstrating that a previously disregarded bio-product solution can both be operationally viable and sustainable."
Vitol's argument is that CNSL is an underused feedstock that can move through existing supply chains if the processing is right. The question the trial does not answer is volume. Cashew processing is a small industry beside the vegetable oil and waste oil streams already being fought over for marine biofuel.
