De Lune Energy has successfully competed its first energy contract for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), supplying high quality lubricant for the McFarland.
The US Army Corps of Engineers works diligently to strengthen the United States’ security by building and maintaining the nation’s infrastructure. With environment sustainability as its guiding principle, it energizes the economy by dredging America’s waterways to support movement of critical commodities.
The vessel McFarland is a deep-draft hopper dredge, sailing under the flag of USA, owned and operated by USACE Philadelphia District. It is the only dredge in the world with triple capability for direct pumpout, bottom discharge and sidecasting or boom discharge. Designed by the Corps’ Marine Design Center, it is one of only four oceangoing hopper dredges owned and operated by USACE as part of its ‘minimum fleet’ for national security and safe navigation. The McFarland has a twofold mission: emergency and national defense dredging as required anywhere in the world and planned dredging in the Delaware River and Bay.
Every year, the McFarland dredges portions of the Delaware River and Bay to enable maritime commerce. The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States, draining areas in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Rising in two branches in New York state’s Catskill Mountains, the river flows into Delaware Bay where its waters enter the Atlantic Ocean. The Delaware River Port Complex includes the Ports of Salem, Wilmington, Chester, Paulsboro, Philadelphia and Camden, which together form one of the largest shipping areas of the United States. In 2017, the tons of cargo moving through the ports supported over $85 billion in business revenue and personal income as well as over 190,000 jobs. Products moving through the port complex include steel, meat, cocoa beans, fruit, automobiles, petroleum and petrochemical products and forest products.
Adhering to the strict standards of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), De Lune Energy fulfilled USACE’s request for 7,000 gallons of new SAE Engine Lubricating Oil for the McFarland. Working with equally diligent and dedicated partners, De Lune Energy provided delivery of the freshly blended oil conforming to API Engine Service Category ‘CD’ and other strictly specified property limits. Meeting the requirements listed under 33 CFR and the provisions of 49 CFR, Part 130, De Lune ensured rapid delivery - with time to spare within the stipulated delivery calendar - across difficult terrain and navigating complicated logistics, to the South Pier at Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia.
The supplying of marine lubricants requires considerations not always applicable to other lubricating oils, necessitating highly specific quality at short notice. This is in part due to the size of the engines, their high efficiencies and the fuel they burn. In keeping with USACE’s environmental compliance policy and De Lune Energy’s own sustainability framework, De Lune Energy ensured the product satisfied rigid ecological standards such as being non-hazardous under the Aquatic Acute Environment category, non-hazardous under the Aquatic Chronic Environment category, biodegradable, recyclable after use and possessing no mobility in soil.
The Delaware River is hailed as one of the world’s top water quality success stories, having come a long way from its polluted past in the late 1800s and mid-1900s and De Lune Energy, in keeping with its sustainability focus, was determined to do its part in upholding this status. Today the river supports year-round trout fish populations as well as those returning to their natal waters to spawn such the American shad, striped bass and the endangered shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon. Bald eagles, which depend on fish as their primary resource, reside and nest throughout the basin while horseshoe crabs breed on the shores of the bay more than anywhere else in the world.
At De Lune Energy, we work hard to ensure the optimal outcome for our clients with sustainability at top of mind, powering progress in the United States and the world.
