The HUMMEL LNG Hybrid Barge Supplies Low Emission Power to the AIDAsol Cruise Ship
Premiere at the Port of Hamburg: In May a cruise ship received environmentally friendly power from the LNG Hybrid Barge for the first time.
Becker Marine Systems’ barge, christened the HUMMEL, provides 7.5 megawatts of low-emission power to AIDAsol during its layover at port.
After the AIDAsol berthed at the Port of Hamburg on the morning of 30th May 2015, the infeed of power on the cruise ship was for the first time ensured by way of low-emission liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel. “This means that we have carried out the first successful transfer of power to a cruise ship in Europe”, said Dirk Lehmann and Henning Kuhlmann, both Managing Directors of Becker Marine Systems.
On Saturday the trial testing of supplying power to the first technical systems on board the AIDAsol by the LNG Hybrid Barge’s five gas-powered engines commenced at Hamburg’s Hafencity in the presence of Frank Horch, Senator for Economics, Transport and Innovation (Hamburg) as well as Jens Kerstan, Senator for Environment and Energy (Hamburg), and Monika Griefahn, AIDA Cruise’s Director for Environment and Community.
“With this successful premiere, the Port of Hamburg is serving as a global role model”, said Lehmann and Kuhlmann. “Credit is also due to our partner AIDA Cruises, who were deeply involved in this technically challenging project,“ said Lehmann and Kuhlmann.
However, apart from AIDAsol, up till now only a few other ships have been able to receive power from such a barge. “Nevertheless, to improve air quality at port cities preferably all modern seagoing vessels should be able to do this in future”, said the Managing Directors of Becker Marine Systems.
The LNG Hybrid Barge developed and operated by the Hamburg-based company works like a floating power plant that generates power via a gas container filled with 15 tonnes of LNG for low-emission transfer to the cruise ship. Overall, the barge christened the HUMMEL can generate an output of 7.5 megawatts.
Compared to conventional marine diesel with 0.1% sulphur content, the LNG Hybrid Barge emits no sulphur dioxides or soot. Emissions of nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide are also significantly reduced. The LNG Hybrid Barge is thus already deemed the cleanest option for providing shoreside electrical power (“cold ironing”) to cruise ships. For this reason, in addition to cruise ships, Becker Marine Systems would in future like to offer environmentally friendly LNG technology to container ships, bulkers and tankers as well.
On the day before the company was honoured with the “GreenTec Award” in the “Travel” category for its LNG Hybrid Barge. The annual awards for innovative environmental technology and environmental commitment were presented on Friday evening as part of gala held at the Tempodrom in Berlin.
