Technical Papers

Last March, Stephen L. Johnson, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stood at the Port of Houston in Texas to unveil to the media tough new emissions standards for locomotive and marine diesel engines that will slash emissions and help people to breathe cleaner air near ports and elsewhere. EPA’s Clean Diesel Locomotive and Marine program works in collaboration with our partners in various sectors – private and public – to cut emissions from all types of diesel locomotives, including line-haul, switch, and passenger rail, as well as from a wide range of marine sources, including ferries, tugboats and all types of marine auxiliary engines.

The chronology of containerisation since McLean’s first trial run in April, 1956, using Ideal X, a converted tanker, is nothing but impressive. Even more impressive is the evolution and growth in the size of purpose-built fully cellular containerships, which arrived on the scene in 1968. As more and more fully cellular ships were constructed, they were categorised into ‘generations’.

The Red Sea is located between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. It has a length of 2,250 km and a width of 355 km. In 1869 the Red Sea became a route for shipping goods. Recently Port Technology International sat down with the Business Development Department for the Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT), the new green field terminal project at Saudi Arabia’s main seaport, Jeddah Islamic Port, to ask for a progress report on how the project is shaping up.

The marine environment The Sultanate of Oman has a long and proud maritime history. Seafarers have passed along its ruggedly beautiful 1,709 nautical mile coastline for centuries. Deep water is generally found within five miles of the shoreline. Few offshore dangers exist, and where they do they are well charted. The exception is the area along the Arabian Sea coast between the southern end of the Island of Masirah and the Halaniyaat Islands 200 miles to the southwest where reefs can be found up to 30 miles offshore. This is identified by the red ellipse in Figure 1. The blue star marks the location of a new port development project at Duqm.

Green has, over the last few years, taken on a new meaning. Today when someone says the word green they are usually not talking about cash carried in a wallet, but rather the environment. The Academy Award winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, helped spur on the movement to protect the environment and acknowledge global warming. Savvy corporations like General Electric and Wal-Mart quickly jumped on the green wagon and are seeing the results in the other kind of green.

Now almost completed, the European Commission’s MarNIS project has recently provided realistic demonstrations of its innovatory concept for the next generation of integrated Maritime Information Services in Genoa and Lisbon. Aimed at implementation between 2012 and 2020, MarNIS integrates vessel traffic monitoring, search and rescue and pollution combating under one (physical or virtual) roof. Designed around a functional architecture that is independent of technology, the MarNIS concept centralises the flow of information on transiting ships for use by all maritime stakeholders. Early ‘once-only’ reporting and long range monitoring of shipping, especially vessels that pose a potential risk, enable a more proactive approach to environmental protection of Europe’s coasts, while increasing the speed of turnaround in ports.

One of the key advantages of Zeeland Seaports, the ports of Vlissingen and Terneuzen, is a strategic location on the estuary of the Western Scheldt between some of the main economic centres of northwest Europe and the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp. Zeeland Seaports is dedicated to its modern-day role as a European hub for cargo handling and logistics. The two ports are eminently qualified for this role thanks to their unique geographical location, free access to the open sea and a first-rate network of road, rail, pipelines and waterway links to the hinterland of Europe.

It’s quite encouraging to see that the global slowdown has done nothing to dampen the spirit that prevails in the parastatal – Transnet. The multi-billion upgrading project at Cape Town harbour includes deepening the berths to a depth of 15.5 m and building a new quay facility to take the larger container handling cranes, four of which have already been installed, with another four due to be delivered shortly. With space being at a premium, the container yard is being converted to a rubber tyre gantry system (RTG), which will enable them to replace the ageing straddle carriers. The RTG system will enable containers to be stacked more densely and up to five high instead of the three high of the straddle carriers.

Euroports is a relatively new name in the European port sector. The company is headquartered in Luxembourg and owns a wide network of port terminals throughout continental Europe. In a very short time it has grown to be the most diverse port operator in Europe – both in terms of the range of geographic port locations it is present at, and in the wide range of cargo types that it handles.

Huebner Giessen system solutions are not only setting standards across the globe for crane controlling solutions with the compact and modular U-ONE® system, but also with single devices like EGS 4..® (programmable electronic overspeed switch) and FG 4 (incremental encoder with fibre optic signal transmission by direct cable connection or by means of fibre optic components transmitter and decoder). SIL 2 conformity As the only ‘on the market’ available components, Huebner Giessen provides U-ONE® and EGS 41® with functional safety certification according IEC 61508 SIL 2 (software) and EN ISO 13849-1 PL d (software and hardware).

As of February 28, 2009, those requiring access to the secure areas of the marine terminals at the Port of Portland in Oregon have been required to have a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) in hand or an approved escort to accompany them. The first phase of this federally required programme has since rolled out nationally. Affecting literally every U.S. port and those who work there, the implementation of the first phase of the national programme was a longstanding concern for ports, businesses and individuals across the country. In Portland, however, thanks in part to advance planning and communications from port officials, the enforcement deadline came and went largely without incident.

Strategically located half way down the coast of Namibia, with direct access to principal shipping routes, Walvis Bay is a natural gateway for international trade. Walvis Bay is Namibia's largest commercial port, receiving approximately 3,000 vessel calls each year and handling about three million tonnes of cargo. It is a sheltered deepwater harbour benefiting from a temperate climate. Fortunately, no delays are caused by bad weather. In order to deal with even higher levels of throughput, Namport have steadily improved its cargo-handling facilities, and remains committed to infrastructure development.