Page 44 - European Energy Innovation - autumn 2017 publication

44 Autumn 2017 European Energy Innovation
LNG
Deployment of Liquefied &
Compressed Natural Gas related
initiatives in the Danube region
By Manfred Seitz and Ruxandra Florescu, Pro Danube International, Vienna
Home to over 80 million
people, the Danube
region aims at ensuring
prosperous economies,
healthy societies and dynamic
ecosystems. With the Danube River as
core transport axis, inland waterborne
transport plays an important role for
the transportation of goods in Europe,
with demonstrated advantages in
comparison to other modalities i.a.
lower costs, lack of congestion, energy
efficiency, all these turning it into an
extremely attractive transport mode.
The Danube is not only a vital source
of water supply sustaining navigation,
but is also great for facilitating power the region. Moreover, LNG is capable
generation, industry development,
biodiversity, agriculture, fishing,
recreation, tourism, etc.
According to the European
Commission, transport represents
almost a quarter of Europe’s
greenhouse gas emissions and is the
main cause of air pollution in cities.
Photo: © RAG, Austria
GHG emissions decreased in the
majority of sectors between 1990 and
2015, with the notable exception of
transport. Road transportation alone
accounted for 24 % of CO2 emission in
2015 (for EU-28 and Iceland).
In line with EU policies Danube
countries have started to push towards
achieving a low carbon economy.
The usage of Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) & Compressed Natural Gas
(CNG) – including bio-methane – as
an eco-friendly alternative fuel and as
a new commodity is one key element
for greening the transport system of
of playing a vital role in the region in AG (RAG) – the fourth-largest gas
supporting innovation, sustainable
development and the competitiveness
of inland waterway transport, fact
which was demonstrated already by
the success stories in North-Western
Europe.
The experiences gained in the LNG
Masterplan for Rhine-Main-Danube
flagship project (2013-2015) opened
up the way for several other ambitious
projects meant to close up the gap
in the small-scale LNG supply chains
in the Danube region. There are
numerous challenges to be dealt with
when promoting the use of natural
gas (liquefied or compressed) as a fuel
and as cargo, but Austria, Slovakia,
Hungary and Romania are making
important steps in this direction in
line with the Directive 2014/94/EU on
the deployment of alternative fuels
infrastructure.
In Upper Austria, Rohöl-Aufsuchung
storage company in Europe is building
a new LNG filling station in the port
of Enns, adding from the end of
September 2017 another important
refuelling facility for Europe’s logistics
and heavy duty transportation, for
both road and inland waterways.
Ennshafen is located at the confluence
of the rivers Enns and Danube and in
close proximity to the Europe-wide
E60 major traffic route, the second
longest E-road in Europe. Due to its
location, the station is ideally suited
for transport companies that rely on
LNG as an environmentally cleaner
fuel. RAG successfully introduced one
Iveco Stralis NP truck (the first LNG
truck in Austria) in April this year. More
Stralis NP trucks will be delivered to
selected customers in September
2017. According to Iveco, there are
more than 2.000 of such trucks on the
road all over Europe.
In Slovakia two ambitious EU-funded
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