Posted on April 5, 2023
Antwerp Terminal Services (ATS), a joint venture between MSC PSA Europe Terminal (MPET) and PSA Antwerp (PSAA), yesterday officially launched the world’s first H2 dual fuel straddle carrier in the Port of Antwerp.
Using H2 dual fuel combustion engine technology, developed by cleantech company CMB.TECH and integrated into a straddle carrier with the support of ATS, the machine runs on a mix of hydrogen and diesel. Following a 24-month design and development phase, the partners will now start testing the dual fuel straddle carrier’s performance in live operations at PSAA’s Noordzee Terminal. They will evaluate how to improve the design of the equipment, as well as other factors that are necessary to scale up this new technology, including the supply and storage of hydrogen for an entire fleet.
As the companies stated, in line with the UN Paris Climate Agreement and the EU Green Deal, ATS, MPET and PSAA aim to reduce their carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030 with 2019 as a baseline and have net-zero emissions for all their terminals by 2050. As part of their plans to reach these objectives, the partners announced yesterday the launch into operations of a dual fuel straddle carrier, which injects hydrogen into its diesel combustion engine. It can therefore, as they claim, play an important role in reducing terminal greenhouse gas emissions.
We are happy to test and work with PSA for hydrogen-powered port equipment. We are hereby taking a first step away from diesel in the heavy-duty container terminal segment.
While at Europa Terminal, we are gradually moving towards automated stacking cranes in the yard, we realize that straddle carriers will remain a key element in our equipment fleet for years to come.
… said Francis De Ruytter – Regional Head of Sustainability for PSA Europe, Mediterranean and the Americas
This next stage is supported by PIONEERS, a project funded by the EU and coordinated by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. It is part of the Horizon 2020 program which supports and promotes the development of specific solutions to reduce carbon emissions in the port sector, with the aim of transforming ports into green infrastructures by 2050.
Green Straddle Carrier Program
These tests with the first dual fuel hydrogen straddle carrier prototypes are part of the MPET & PSAA Green Straddle Carrier Program, in which the terminal operators are holistically evaluating four major technological pathways to significantly reduce these vehicles’ carbon emissions in their actual working environment: hydrogen, biofuel, hybrid battery/diesel and full electrification. Which solution the partners will eventually scale up depends on the test results.
