Page 36 - European Energy Innovation - Spring 2017 publication
P. 36

36  Spring 2017 European Energy Innovation

    LNG

LNG as an alternative fuel for
the Transportation Sector
The Inland Shipping Sector

The Transportation sector                   the emissions of nitrogen oxides           2008/50 / EC. The increased air
            will grow enormously in the     (NOx) and particulate matter (PM10)        pollutants can lead to health damage
            coming years. Today freight     in marine engines are now higher than      to the population, especially in
            transport - especially on the   those of road and rail.                    agglomerations. The consequences are
road and on the waterways - has been                                                   respiratory diseases, especially asthma,
mainly depended on mineral oil as           Concerning possible measures to            bronchitis and cancer. In the case of an
an energy source. This would lead           reduce emissions from the European         increase in inland waterway transport,
to an even higher air pollution and         barge fleet (about 14,000 vessels),        the deterioration of air quality,
noise level as much as to an increase       there is a lot to be done in comparison    especially in the cities near to the
of CO2 emissions for the climate.           to advanced engine and exhaust gas         ports, is to be feared when the engines
According to the climate protection         technologies in road traffic. Already air  currently in operation are used.
plan of the state of North Rhine-           pollutants such as particulate matter,
Westphalia, a part of the expected          sulfur and nitrogen dioxides are           Liquefied natural gas (LNG) could
growth in freight transport should be       causing a high air pollution, especially   be a climate and environmentally
shifted from road to rail and inland        in cities along the waterways. This        friendly alternative to diesel and
waterways. In general inland waterway       is also confirmed by the emission          heavy fuel oil. LNG is produced when
vessels generate lower CO2 emissions        cadastre of the State Office for Nature,   natural gas is cooled and compressed
compared to road and rail transport,        Environment and Consumer Protection        at -162 ° C with constant pressure.
based on the transported goods and          of North Rhine-Westphalia (LANUV           Compared to the compressed gas
distance kilometers (emissions / t *        NRW). The measurement cadastre             (CNG = Compressed Natural Gas), the
km). Although a ship can replace many       showed that in 2014 only 12% of the        considerably higher energy density
trucks, the old diesel engines blow a       measuring stations moved within the        allows ranges of up to 1500 km for
lot of pollutants into the air. Especially  limits of the EU according to Directive    trucks and enables the use of an
                                                                                       alternative fuel in heavy-load traffic
LNG Barge, source: Shell                                                               and in shipping. The advantage of LNG
                                                                                       is that there are no particulate matter
                                                                                       emissions, no SO2 emissions (sulfur),
                                                                                       80-90% less NOx emissions (nitrogen
                                                                                       oxides) and a CO2 savings potential of
                                                                                       10-20%. The addition of biomethane
                                                                                       could even reduce CO2 emissions by
                                                                                       up to 80%.

                                                                                       On the other hand there is almost
                                                                                       no infrastructure in North-Rhine-
                                                                                       Westphalia nor in Germany at all.
                                                                                       Technical and legal standards and
                                                                                       framework conditions must be
                                                                                       harmonized and established across
                                                                                       Europe. In the autumn of 2016,
                                                                                       two European projects have been
                                                                                       launched to promote LNG as an
                                                                                       alternative fuel for heavy duty vehicles
                                                                                       and inland vessels (LNG PILOTS) and

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