Shipping’s reputation as one of the hardest parts of the global economy to decarbonise is hard earned. That’s what makes Quadrise’s work with MSAR and BioMSAR so interesting. With water at the heart of the mix, the company has progressively rethought what fuel can mean for ship engines. Its approach doesn’t rely on radical new infrastructure. Instead, it blends heavy hydrocarbons with water and surfactants to produce an emulsion fuel in which droplets are dramatically smaller, mere microns, so the combustion process becomes more efficient. The fuel burns at lower temperatures, around 70 °C versus more than 100 °C for high-sulphur fuel, and that improves thermal efficiency right where it counts: inside the engine. That nuance in approach reframes the challenge. Rather than developing a new engine or rewriting the global bunkering system, Quadrise is rewriting fuel itself.
In practical application, with two-stroke engines, carbon emissions fall by as much as 9 %, though the average is closer to 6 %, and for four-stroke engines the reduction is around 3-5 %. That shift is delivered from within the engine, not by external appendages or infrastructure overhaul. Better still, NOₓ emissions drop by 25-30 %, while particulates shrink dramatically—emissions show up as a “white stack, like a gas.” That makes the case for fleet operators that compliance doesn’t need to come at the price of major retrofit.
Trials already anchor this focus in real-world context. MSAR has been tested in Maersk’s vessel running a Wärtsilä Flex engine, an existing setup familiar to many operators, while BioMSAR, which adds glycerine to the already water-blended fuel, is being lined up for MSC’s trial on the very same vessel following its acquisition. What’s more, Quadrise is working to scaffold the supply side. The company is establishing bunkering and production systems, beginning in Antwerp, with feedstock help from Cargill, with an objective to have that infrastructure in place by year-end and trial volumes flowing by January 2026.
Quadrise plc (LON:QED) is an energy technology provider whose solutions enable production of cheaper, cleaner, simpler and safer alternatives to fuel oil and biofuels, proven in real world applications. Quadrise technologies produce transition fuels called MSAR® and bioMSAR™, which allow clients in the shipping, utilities and industrial sectors to reduce carbon emissions whilst also saving costs.
