Duisburg container port in Germany: hydrogen on the coal island

 "The port of Duisburg will open a new container terminal in 2023, which will consistently rely on hydrogen technology. First comes the energy source with the tanker, in the future there will be a pipeline. The challenges are great.

Ironically, the coal island. The port of Duisburg, Duisport for short, could hardly have chosen a more symbolic location for the Duisburg Gateway Terminal (DGT) future project. Since the middle of the 18th century, the fossil fuel hard coal has been handled on the 24-hectare site. At the turn of the millennium it was still around 20 million tons a year. Since then, the energy market has changed fundamentally, and in 2020 Duisport discontinued the classic operation of the coal island. 

From next year, the port will operate Europe's largest inland trimodal container terminal here, which will also serve as a "flagship project" for hydrogen-based energy technology.

The concept of the port operation, which is considered climate-neutral, has been developed since 2019 with the Enerport project. The second part of the project, which will run until 2025, started in December last year. Enerport II is about implementing hydrogen-based energy conversion practically in the port. Duisport has brought the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology, the MTU brand from Rolls-Royce Power Systems and various local and regional energy suppliers on board as partners.

At first glance, the planned terminal in the world's largest inland port does not differ from other modern handling facilities for containers. Quays, storage areas, roads and railway tracks can be seen on the simulations. Nevertheless, Alexander Garbar, Head of Corporate Development and Strategy at Duisport, sees the project as a pioneer for change in the industry. "Enerport can serve as a blueprint for other ports in the future," says the business graduate. 

The focus is on electrifying as many processes in the terminal as possible. Fuel cells and combined heat and power plants are to generate the electrical energy for this from hydrogen. The heat that is generated can also be fed into the municipal local heating network in Duisburg - this is possible because the port area, which has grown over time, is embedded in the city.

 

Terminal as a climate-neutral handling facility

 

Every port knows the challenges that Duisport wants to overcome with the project. Ships need a shore power supply so that they do not have to keep their engines running on the quay. Local emissions also occur when forklifts or straddle carriers transport containers in the terminal, just like when trains are shunted with diesel locomotives. The trend towards electrification is correspondingly strong. Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, for example, operates a fleet of automatic, battery-powered container transporters at its Altenwerder container terminal. They were a key to being able to certify the terminal as a climate-neutral handling facility.

In Duisburg, the location of the new terminal surrounded by water is used instead. It makes it possible to handle the versatile metal crates using only six long-span container gantries: These are responsible for unloading and loading the ships, positioning the containers on the storage areas and then loading them onto trains and trucks. "We can handle the entire handling with the electrically driven and rail-guided crane systems," says Garbar.

In the new terminal, 40 percent of the freight volume is to be handled by water and rail and only 20 percent by road. 

This includes that rail traffic from Duisburg to China should continue to grow. Currently, 60 trains a week travel to and from China, and in the future there will be more than 100. 

Duisport wants to use hydrogen-powered locomotives for shunting on the twelve block train tracks in the DGT.

 

Networked application as a departure

 

Most of the electricity required in the port is to be converted from hydrogen directly on site. To this end, MTU will install three fuel cell systems with a total output of 1.5 megawatts and combined heat and power plants with an output of two megawatts. The systems should be able to cover both the base load and peak loads, explains Armin Fürderer. The electrical engineer is head of hydrogen solutions at the drive technology company from Friedrichshafen. The proton exchange membrane fuel cells should play to their strengths in the system: "One advantage of this technology is that it can be operated very flexibly," says Fürderer. The combined heat and power plants, on the other hand, should constantly supply electrical energy and heat. The thermal energy is extracted for the local heating network via a heat exchanger.

For around three years, Rolls-Royce Power Systems has been converting hydrogen-based technology to concrete products. The manufacturer sees the networked application in the Port of Duisburg as a departure, even if MTU has not started from scratch, at least with the block-type thermal power stations. Otto engines that run on natural gas serve as the basis. These aggregates do not have to be newly developed, only adapted. 

For example, it was necessary to modify ignition points and injection times and to replace materials that could become brittle due to hydrogen, such as on the valves.

So are the signals green for emission-free goods logistics in the Ruhrort district? It's not quite that far yet. As with all hydrogen applications, the question arises for the new terminal as to where “green hydrogen” that is produced with solar or wind power can come from. In the beginning, the gas is also delivered by tanker truck. Later, solutions for waterways and railways will also come into question. The hydrogen can either be liquefied under high pressure, cryogenically or transported in a carrier medium. In the medium term, the connection of the terminal to a pipeline for hydrogen gas is desired. 

Then the region around the port should also produce the energy source itself - just like the coal that once came from the mines in the Ruhr area."

 Clearly, much of the hydrogen they will produce in Russia, where there is plenty of room for hydrogen infrastructure to be located. And by taking hundreds of trains from China a week, they will flood us with cheap goods from China. Our money will pay Russia for hydrogen and the Germans will take huge part  that will be left. What about Klaipėda? What Klaipėda ... Having lost cargo from Belarus, Russia, and China it will turn into a quiet village again. Our children will let the paper boats in the water there, dreaming of emigrating to Germany. "And why? I don't know. I'm just asking for more wind ..." (Maironis) That's exactly right, more wind...