The French group Sogestran is putting the finishing touches to this self-propelled vessel stamped “green” which will make deliveries to Paris by June 2022.
Hydrogen-powered ships are coming ashore on the Seine. Like all modes of transport, maritime and inland waterway transport will follow the path of decarbonization by 2050. Thanks to the European Flagships program, a cooperative financed by the European Union for the technological development of different sources of propulsion, two projects for ships powered by hydrogen fuel cells are in preparation. One in Stavanger, Norway, a passenger and car ferry, and the other led by Sogestran Group, a French, independent and family-owned group, which is one of the Top 5 river transporters in Europe. Called Zulu 6, its vessel will serve Paris by June 2022.
Sogestran Group, which is headquartered in Le Havre, France, is a shipowner and owner of 40 sea-going vessels and 160 river vessels. It has 1,000 employees and generates revenues of around €300 million. Its activities are manifold: provisioning in seaports, as for the Army or Ariane Group with the transport of its rockets to Guyana, the transport of hazardous materials on Europe’s rivers, the transport of containers, their cleaning and refurbishment, but also deliveries by waterway from platforms, as close as possible to urban centers.
In terms of urban logistics, the company has been pursuing a decarbonization policy for several years now, based on three pillars: “First of all, on long distances, between Le Havre and Paris, our battle consists in reducing CO2, with the use of cleaner fuels such as BioGNL, Biomethanol or Greenamonia. For six months, we have also been testing Saipol’s EP100, a rapeseed-based fuel, and soon HVO, a synthetic diesel”, explains Matthieu Blanc, Director of the Sogestran Group’s river activity.
A study has also been carried out over the past eleven years, with the installation of hundreds of sensors on boats, pushers and barges that have made it possible to collect “millions and millions of data”. “We now know that our vessels spend 40% of their time at the quayside. That’s why we are campaigning for electric connections to VNF terminals. It means 15% less diesel consumption and therefore less pollution,” says Matthieu Blanc.
With this in mind, the group has launched the construction of the Zulu 6 for the group’s subsidiary Blue Line Logistics, which mainly delivers to Paris from the port of Gennevilliers. “In urban areas, our objective is zero emissions, zero waste. We believe that this can be achieved by two means: the battery and green hydrogen. That’s why we joined the Flagships program.
When launching its project five years ago, Sogestran Group chose to start with a 50-meter long, 8-meter wide pusher, “the equivalent of twenty heavy trucks or two hundred pickup trucks. The Zulu 6 will have a driver’s cabin at the front, a flat deck with a self-unloading crane and, at the rear, two containers. One to hold the fuel cell and the other the green hydrogen tank at 350 bars for 400 kilos. “We learned that hydrogen should not be put in the engine room,” says Matthieu Blanc.
As for the schedule, the barge built by a subsidiary of Piriou Shipyards in Romania will reach Le Havre in the first half of March. It will then be equipped with its hydrogen machinery “before the first tests are launched in June”. We should inaugurate it in September,” promises Matthieu Blanc. Zulu 6 will then work like the other units. It will be able to cover the 30 kilometers in three hours and deliver to the different sites before the parcels leave in cargo bikes or three-wheelers in Paris.” With a total price tag of €4 million, financed massively by the EU, its daily operating cost compared to a fossil-fuelled vessel will be “+30% for the moment”.
