HUMMEL LNG Hybrid Barge Begins Second Season

For over one year the HUMMEL has been contributing to improved air quality at the port of Hamburg. Becker Marine Systems’ LNG Hybrid Barge will also be supplying lower mission power to the AIDAsol this year. The cruise ship has already made three calls since the middle of May and will have made a total of 16 stops at the Hafencity terminal by October.

Operations of the HUMMEL LNG Hybrid Barge have started up again at the beginning of the new cruise ship season. “Due to some restrictions making the work more difficult, we are continuing to seek a mutual solution together with the relevant authorities,” said Dirk Lehmann, Managing Director of Becker Marine Systems. This would then enable the HUMMEL to supply environmentally-friendly power to cruise ships during their layovers at port beyond the current year.

Following Becker Marine Systems’ work on the development of the LNG Hybrid Barge project acting as a floating power plant, operations and the product sales will now be the responsibility of Hybrid Port Energy, the operating company and a subsidiary of Becker Marine Systems. The same applies to the use of the new, modular LNG PowerPac special containers.

Becker Marine Systems said it would like to expand its offering LNG technology to containerships, bulkers and tankers in the future. “Discussions with the Port of Rotterdam for the implementation of another barge are already well under way,” said Lehmann. Last year the Hamburg-based company signed a memorandum of understanding for the sale of an LNG Hybrid Barge with Netherlands-based shipping company KOTUG and the Shell oil and gas company.