For those of you who deal with FuelEU on a daily basis in the shipping company, this is nothing new. BDN stands for Bunker Delivery Note and means the paper that documents which fuel has been bunkered on board. In the past, this was usually more of a receipt. In the future, the BDN is actually a crucial document to save the shipping company money.

FuelEU Maritime sets new standards when it comes to dealing with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in shipping. The predecessor MRV/ETS (“Monitoring, Reporting and Verification” and “Emission Trading System”) is about emitting less CO2 or paying for each ton of CO2. FuelEU is about gradually switching to lower emission fuel or paying penalties for using higher emission fuel.

The easiest way to compare it is with a diet: MRV/ETS means eating less. FuelEU means eating low calorie food. FuelEU is therefore about a “nutrition change” for shipping, which is certainly the more sustainable approach in the long term.

And what does this all have to do with BDN? Well, lower emission fuel means that in the future biofuels or e-fuels will be the method of choice to reduce FuelEU penalties. Unfortunately, biofuels are not uniform in terms of their GHG emissions. Each fuel may have its own characteristics.

The BDN documents the relevant factors needed to calculate the emission characteristics of the fuel. So basically, a BDN is the calorific value table on the cereal pack. The BDN therefore becomes the basis for calculating the FuelEU penalties you may have to pay. And that is the reason why we have changed the way of consumption reporting in Fleettracker.

Unfortunately, this means additional work for the crew on board to report the data. But we are working on making this easier for the people on board. Stay tuned.