The Port of Rotterdam Authority announced that it has been awarded nearly €25 million (US$30.4 million) in EU funding along with 45 companies, knowledge institutes, and port authorities as part of an international alliance — which it heads — that will work on sustainable projects in the logistics sector.
"The consortium will be using this grant to execute 10 pilot projects and demonstration projects that focus on sustainable and smart logistics in port operations," the Port of Rotterdam Authority said in a statement.
It added that in the years ahead, the transport sector is expected to transition to clean power — although it said that "at this moment it is not clear yet which types it will be adopting exactly, and for which modes of transport."
A number of renewable fuels and energy carriers are currently being developed further, including green hydrogen, large electric batteries, ammonia, and bio-LNG.
Port of Rotterdam, which is the busiest port in Europe, noted that each type has its own advantages and challenges, with one option seeming more suited to shipping, another to applications within the port or transport to destinations in the hinterland.
"Some links in the chain from production to consumption have already been tested; others have not. The consortium’s broad, international research program primarily focuses on those aspects in the use of new fuels and energy carriers that have not yet been tested in practice," it added, noting that this includes production, transport, storage, distribution (fuels) and charging (electric power).
Carbon-free by 2050
The partners will also design and implement several digitalisation and automation solutions in the context of the energy transition.
"In addition, they will be exploring how best to encourage companies to raise the sustainability of their logistics processes. And finally, one of the consortium’s outputs involves the development of a master plan that sets out how transport in, to, and from the ports can be made carbon-free by 2050 – and what needs to be done in this context before 2030 and 2040," it added.
The project comes out of a collaboration between the port authorities of Rotterdam, DeltaPort (Germany), HAROPA PORT (France: Le Havre, Rouen, Paris), and Sines (Portugal), in partnership with 10 research institutes and over 30 companies in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal, Denmark and Sweden.
The research project has been given the acronym MAGPIE: sMArt Green Ports as Integrated Efficient multimodal hubs. The research project will run for five years.
The European Commission has made a budget available within the Horizon 2020 green deal program for research into opportunities to increase the sustainability of logistics operations in seaports and airports.
The results of the various pilot projects and studies will be shared with other European ports, knowledge institutes, and companies.
