Kalmar partners with Global Service to develop a diesel-LNG powered reachstacker
Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has started a project, as the primary external industrial partner of the GREENCRANES pilot action, for the engineering and realisation of a reachstacker prototype using dual fuel technology (diesel and liquefied natural gas, LNG), the company said in its press release.
To achieve this ambitious and visionary project, Kalmar signed a partnership agreement with its loyal customer Global Service, the leader of the pilot. Global Service is located in Livorno, Italy and it is one of the most important players in the equipment rental business in the country.
Kalmar and Global Service are working closely on the creation of this prototype, which is expected to deliver significant results in terms of environmental friendly operation. The prototype is expected to be ready at the end of October 2013 when the GREENCRANES staff will be invited to assist in the test phase. A public demonstration of this pilot will take place on 4 December 2013 at the Port of Livorno.
The pilot and demonstration will be based on the adaptation of a Kalmar reachstacker to a motorisation for reducing the environmental impact and the energy consumption.
The project's pilot phases are:
· Design of a reachstacker that adopts alternative environmental compatible fuelling, dual fuel (LNG- diesel) powered engine
· Integration and realisation of a prototype according to the design
· Functional testing of the prototype
· Pilot of the prototype and analysis of performance in a real port container terminal
About GREENCRANES
GREENCRANES, Green Technologies and Eco-Efficient Alternatives for Cranes and Operations at Port Container Terminals, is a project involving three member states: Spain, Italy and Slovenia, including public administration, strategic ports, port industrial partners and innovation centres. GREENCRANES aims to study and define methods and measures to describe port container terminals' energy profiles, analyse different eco-efficient technologies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions whilst increasing their productivity. It also aims to carry out pilot deployments of different potential solutions, extract relevant results from the pilot actions to be disseminated to as many port container terminals as possible and define standards that support the swift investment in these technologies across Europe.
The pilot actions in GREENCRANES constitute market sided innovation and will bridge the gap between research and operational test implementation, validating the technologies in three real life scenarios in the ports of Valencia, Livorno and Koper and therefore reducing the risk for subsequent large scale deployment in European ports. The expected successful results in the pilot actions would provide valuable information and contribute decisively to many existing port container terminals' decision-making as they would have relevant proofs of how these technologies decrease their greenhouse gas emissions whilst reducing their energy bill and increasing their productivity. GREENCRANES is a project co-financed by the European Union, Trans-European Transport Network.
Liquefied natural gas is natural gas, mostly methane, which has been cryogenically super-cooled and condensed into liquid form for storage and transport. LNG is lighter than air, so when gas leaks out it evaporates into the atmosphere. By contrast, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is heavier than air and falls to ground level when released.
