Hydrogen to power heavy port technology

Tog­e­ther with part­ners, Ham­bur­ger Hafen und Logis­tik AG (HHLA) wants to dri­ve for-ward the decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on of hand­ling and trans­port pro­ces­ses. Clean Port & Logi­stics (CPL), an inno­va­ti­on clus­ter to test hydro­gen-powered port logi­stics equip­ment, aims to sup­port this.

With Clean Port & Logi­stics (CPL), HHLA has crea­ted a clus­ter to test hydro­gen-powered equip­ment in port logi­stics. This will sup­port and acce­le­ra­te both the achie­ve­ment of mar­ket matu­ri­ty and the inte­gra­ti­on into regu­lar port ope­ra­ti­ons. In order to redu­ce emis­si­ons in port hand­ling and the asso­cia­ted logi­stics chains, the inno­va­ti­on clus­ter has the sup­port of the Fede­ral Minis­try of Trans­port and Digi­tal Infra­struc­tu­re – with HHLA in char­ge of mana­ging the cluster.

CPL brings tog­e­ther equip­ment manu­fac­tu­r­ers as well as port and logi­stics com­pa­nies with aca­de­mic part­ners, pro­du­cers of rene­wa­ble hydro­gen, soft­ware com­pa­nies and ope­ra­tors and manu­fac­tu­r­ers of sto­rage tank loca­ti­ons. The par­ties coope­ra­te nati­on­wi­de to con­duct rese­arch and prac­ti­cal tests into how hydro­gen can be used in a relia­ble way to sup­p­ly power to port tech­no­lo­gy and port logi­stics. The clus­ter car­ri­es out simu­la­ti­ons and inves­ti­ga­ti­ons and deve­lo­ps trai­ning con­cepts for this pur­po­se. At the core of acti­vi­ties will be a test cent­re for hydro­gen-powered equip­ment at the HHLA Con­tai­ner Ter­mi­nal Tol­ler­ort in Hamburg.

The clus­ter will be spon­so­red by the Fede­ral Minis­try of Trans­port and Digi­tal Infra­struc­tu­re as part of a natio­nal inno­va­ti­on pro­gram for hydro­gen and fuel cell tech­no­lo­gy. The fun­ding gui­de­lines will be coor­di­na­ted by NOW GmbH and imple­men­ted by Pro­jekt­trä­ger Jülich (PTJ).

Ange­la Titz­rath, Chair­wo­man of HHLA’s Exe­cu­ti­ve Board: “Port hand­ling and hea­vy goods logi­stics will make their con­tri­bu­ti­on to cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion and impro­ving the qua­li­ty of life in urban are­as. The key ele­ment here is the decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on of logi­stics. That can also be achie­ved with the help of hydro­gen as the ope­ra­ting ener­gy. This is why I am deligh­ted to be laun­ching a clus­ter along­side com­mit­ted part­ners to test this pro­mi­sing new ener­gy source. CPL will pro­vi­de an addi­tio­nal boost to the trans­for­ma­ti­on process.”

The clus­ter will enable coope­ra­ti­on across sites and sup­port many ports in their efforts for more cli­ma­te pro­tec­tion. Micha­el West­ha­ge­mann, Ham­burg Minis­ter for Eco­no­mic and Labour Affairs, explains the importance of the clus­ter for Ham­burg in an exem­pla­ry man­ner: “The port is a focus area of our hydro­gen stra­tegy, which also includes the appli­ca­ti­on of hydro­gen, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in intra­lo­gi­stics, as an important pil­lar. HHLA will gain valuable, cross-disci­pli­na­ry expe­ri­ence from the pro­ject on how the fuel of the future can make a con­cre­te con­tri­bu­ti­on toward rea­ching Hamburg’s cli­ma­te targets.”

Johan­nes Daum, mana­ging direc­tor for hydro­gen, alter­na­ti­ve fuels and bat­te­ries at coor­di­na­ting com­pa­ny NOW GmbH: “NOW looks for­ward to accom­pany­ing the CPL inno­va­ti­on clus­ter as part of the e4ports net­work. Through our net­work acti­vi­ties, we are alre­a­dy awa­re of the urgent need for action at ports con­cer­ning the ener­gy tran­si­ti­on, but we also know the com­mit­ment port com­pa­nies have for pur­suing this goal. With CPL, we will bring the con­cre­te appli­ca­ti­on of hydro­gen in port logi­stics to a new level.

As part of CPL, HHLA has alre­a­dy agreed the first memo­ran­dum of under­stan­ding for the deli­very of hydro­gen-powered emp­ty con­tai­ner hand­lers and ter­mi­nal trac­tors with Hys­ter Yale Group, Inc., a lea­ding desi­gner and manu­fac­tu­rer of port hand­ling equip­ment. The units will be powered by Nuve­ra fuel cells. The deli­very of the ter­mi­nal trac­tor is plan­ned for the end of 2022, fol­lo­wed by the emp­ty con­tai­ner hand­ler in ear­ly 2023.

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