GRENDEL project follows developments of alternative fuels infrastructure for bunkering of  inland vessels, looking for good practices and examples which can help the Danube case and support inland vessels’ operators in their decisions on fleet modernisation.

One of such examples is the announced liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering station for inland vessels in the German port Cologne, located at Am Molenkopf 1. The bunkering station shall facilitate the bunkering of inland waterways vessels that sail on the Rhine.

Dutch PitPoint.LNG, which is a joint venture formed by Dutch duo PitPoint clean fuels and Primagaz Nederland, said beginning this week it plans to open its bunkering station by the second quarter of 2019.

PitPoint.LNG received the official permit for the construction of the Cologne facility what it claims to be Europe’s first shore-to-ship LNG bunkering station. The permit, required under the Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetz (German Emission Control Act) to guarantee the safety of LNG as a fuel for shipping, was formally granted by the District Government of Cologne end-October 2018.

The launching customer for the LNG bunkering station will be the Hague-based LNG giant Shell. The station will bunker the chilled fuel for the inland dual-fuel barges that Shell has chartered from Antwerp-based Plouvier Transport and its Swiss unit Intertrans Tankschiffahrt.

The realisation of this LNG bunkering station is part of the CEF project Breakthrough LNG Deployment in Inland Waterway Transport which is co-financed by the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility.