ELIO now finally ready to sail on LNG: the first bunkering in the Strait has been successfully completed

FerrySix years have passed since ELIO entered the fleet for the Caronte & Tourist Group as the first bi-fuel ship to sail the waters of the Mediterranean. Six years during which, however, the ship has never been able to sail burning LNG (except during the journey from the Turkish shipyard to Messina), until now.

"Our technicians worked for days, both on board and on the dock, for the perfect success of an operation that was complex in itself and, above all, relatively new to us. Today we are naturally very satisfied with the fact that everything went well and because our ELIO is finally ready to navigate the Strait using LNG rather than the more conventional diesel. For us, it is a success that goes beyond the episode and for which we also want to thank the technicians and managers of the AdSP, the Port Authority and the Fire Brigade who ensured careful and continuous support".

With these words, Pietro Franza, CEO of the Caronte & Tourist Group, commented on the first refuelling of LNG for ELIO, carried out at the Norimberga Pier in the port of Messina after a few days dedicated to a series of mandatory preliminary operations.

The absence of a depot for the storage of LNG in the Strait area - Caronte & Tourist has repeatedly denounced - has prevented regular supplies not only for ships but also for the fleets of trucks in transit between the two shores of the Strait, which are increasingly converting to LNG, abandoning diesel.

Because it is clear - they explain at C&T - that in the absence of a depot, bringing the LNG to the required destination by land, via tankers, will be uneconomical and therefore impractical, at least until gas prices stabilize downwards.

It is only by taking advantage of a drop in the price of LNG - in fact - that a few months ago it was possible to refuel with LNG - at the port of Trapani - the NEREA (the other unit of the Group designed with a bi-fuel supply system) using the truck-to-ship method, i.e. from truck to ship, a method used in European ports where there are no fixed infrastructures for LNG, which ensures flexibility and replicability.

ELIO was supplied using the same method with 100 cubic metres of LNG (equivalent to 44 tonnes), arriving on two tankers departing from Ravenna.

“But in the immediate future - Franza assures - there is Bio LNG, a totally natural gas because it is obtained from the processing of organic waste and electric propulsion. Both the NEREA and the PIETRO MONDELLO are equipped with a battery pack that can allow these units to keep the thermal engines off during stops at the dock and to maneuver in or out of ports in zero emissions mode”.