The LNG Masterplan for Rhine/Meuse-Main-Danube is an ambitious project with the goal to facilitate the deployment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as an eco-friendly alternative fuel and a new commodity for inland shipping. Besides the conceptual work, the project triggers first steps in realising the LNG supply chain by making investments into LNG on-shore infrastructure and into LNG fuelled inland vessels and LNG inland carriers.

 

The LNG Masterplan is coordinated by Pro Danube Management together with Port of Rotterdam. It functions as a cooperation platform for authorities and industry stakeholders and brings together 33 project partners from 12 EU Member States and one associated partner from Switzerland.The project helps to remove market barriers. It contributes to the elaboration of technical provisions necessary for creating an encouraging regulatory framework for safe use and handling of LNG. Among other outcomes, LNG emergency and incident response guidelines for inland navigation were recently made available targeting emergency responders, such as fire brigades and port authorities. These guidelines will be followed mid-2015 by guidelines for port rules on LNG bunkering, LNG (un)loading or risk assessments with the goal to ensure harmonised operations on European waterways.

The project delivers a high number of advanced technical concepts for new and retrofitted vessels being propelled by LNG or transporting LNG and deploys several of them such as the container vessel of DCL Barge (Danser Group), the “Eiger-Nordwand”, the conventional gas tanker “Sirocco” of Chemgas Barging, the “EcoLiner” of Damen - the first purely LNG powered inland waterway tanker and the LNG terminal in the Danube region of Bulmarket DM.

For more information regarding the LNG Masterplan project, please visit www.lngmasterplan.eu.