Sustainable shunting operations at the port

The ‘sH2unter@ports’ research project has investigated possible applications for hydrogen drives

Converting shunting operations to renewable energies would be an important step towards making port operations more sustainable and climate-friendly. In the ‘sH2unter@ports’ research project, six companies and research institutions have joined forces to investigate the potential use of alternative fuels in shunting locomotives. They recently presented their findings to a large audience of experts at the Port of Hamburg, hosted by project partner Hamburg Port Authority.

The railway is a comparatively climate-friendly means of transport. As trains on many routes are already supplied with electricity via overhead lines, a complete switch to green electricity from renewable energies is possible in principle. This does not apply to shunting locomotives in the harbours. So that they can also run in areas without overhead lines, they are mainly fuelled by diesel. In order to achieve the climate targets, they would have to be converted to climate-friendly drives. However, this is not so easy. ‘The conversion and new construction of shunting locomotives with alternative drive technologies requires a precise assessment of the operating conditions, the technical possibilities and the existing infrastructure in order to identify the right solution,’ says Prof Dr Benjamin Wagner vom Berg, the project manager responsible for the Smart Mobility Institute at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences.  

The ‘sH2unter@ports’ project investigated alternatives to the use of diesel in shunting operations. The question was whether locomotives could be operated efficiently with hydrogen in the future. Firstly, the researchers equipped a conventional locomotive powered by hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) with measurement sensors. This allowed the actual performance profile of a shunting locomotive in the port areas of Hamburg and Bremerhaven to be recorded and used as the basis for the alternative drive technologies to be developed. ‘Among other things, this results from the total weight of the attached loads, the acceleration during operation and the profile of the route network in the ports. The start-up energy increases many times over even on small hills. The type of operation also plays an important role, as the operational process must not be disrupted by long or frequent refuelling or loading times,’ explains project team member Senad Hasanspahic. 

The researchers focussed on hydrogen. They found that it represents a promising solution option in various areas of application, both in operation and in infrastructure. One advantage: existing shunting locomotives would not have to be replaced, but could be converted to hydrogen drives, i.e. H2 combustion engines, also in combination with generator-battery systems. This would make both economic and ecological sense. ‘Rising costs for fossil fuels and CO2 emissions must be taken into account when considering the question of economic viability. In the long term, retrofitting can be more favourable than continuing to operate diesel locomotives,’ says Uta Kühne from the Smart Mobility Institute.  In the medium term, however, there must be concepts for the new construction of climate-neutral, efficient shunting locomotives that have fuel cell drives or a combination of overhead lines and batteries. The development of such locomotives can be carried out by the project partner ALSTOM Lokomotiven Service GmbH following the project and on the basis of the results. In this respect, the project has made an important contribution to the necessary series production and future climate-friendly harbour operations.

In order to test whether hydrogen is the most efficient solution, drives with overhead lines and batteries as well as operation with HVO were also analysed and compared. The basis for all analyses was formed by extensive series of measurements in the seaports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven. In Bremerhaven's overseas port, HVO has been used as an alternative to diesel since 2023. As CO2 is released during combustion, which was previously absorbed from the atmosphere by plants, this fuel is considered climate-neutral. However, it is not a long-term solution. ‘One advantage of HVO is that it can be used quickly without extensive retrofitting of the locomotives. However, as this fuel can only be provided to a limited extent without competing for land and resources, it is a sensible but time- and scope-limited bridging technology,’ says Prof Wagner vom Berg. In principle, however, the replacement of diesel-powered shunting locomotives with alternative drives in the defossilisation of ports should be seen as having no alternative.

The ‘sH2unter@ports’ research and development project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport Affairs as part of the National Innovation Programme for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology. The funding programme is coordinated by NOW GmbH and implemented by Project Management Jülich (PtJ). The project volume totals over 1.2 million euros.
The project team is made up of the locomotive manufacturer (Alstom), the railway operating company (evb), the Smart Mobility Institute at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, the Institute for Energy and Circular Economy (IEKrW) at Bremen University of Applied Sciences, as well as the integration partners for the port location of Bremerhaven (bremenports) and the port location of Hamburg (Hamburg Port Authority).

Further information on the project can be found at https://sh2unter.com.