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ECTA Review
BULKDISTRIBUTOR
January/February 2016
On the right tracks
Sustainable transport needs to see rail become more competitive and BASF is on the case
T
he city of Dusseldorf once again hosted the annual
meeting of the European Chemical Transport Association
(ECTA) in November.
Among the presentations was fascinating insight into BASF’s
physical logistics strategy, encapsulated in its Rail 4.0 project. Dr
Thorsten Bieker, vice president rail & site services at BASF, outlined
how the chemical giant is putting sustainability at the heart of its
logistics processes.
Dr Bieker began by outlining those global mega-trends that
ultimately will have an impact on numerous industries and, crucially,
their supply chain and logistics operations.
By 2050, some 9 billion people will live on earth, while by 2025,
67 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2025.
These factors raise questions about guaranteeing food and water
supply for everyone.
Add in the 1.2 billion cars which people will be driving on earth
by 2020, and the concomitant need to reduce emissions and fuel
consumption, and then it becomes clear that sustainable
chemistry has a big role to play in securing a sustainable planet,
he hypothesised.
BASF’s Ludwigshafen base can see 15 million tonnes of inbound and outbound freight in a year
Back to basics
To illustrate what BASF is attempting against this global background,
Dr Bieker gave a case study of BASF’s Ludwigshafen chemical facility.
In 2014, transport volumes inbound and outbound at this giant
plant amounted to 14.9 million tonnes.
Situated next to the River Rhine it is not surprising that barge
movements accounted for the largest part – 40 percent, equivalent
to 20 vessels a day. Road movements accounted for 33 percent
(2,036 trucks a day), with rail taking up the remaining 27 percent
(397 rail cars a day).
On top of this, 6.2 million tonnes of internal transport volumes
were shipped around different parts of the plant, mostly by rail.
He then looked at the pros and cons of three different transport
equipment types - classic rail tanks, intermodal tank containers and
road tankers.
The standard rail tank has the advantages of low labour costs per
tonne carried and low filling costs. It also has good public
acceptance in terms of CO2 emissions per tonne/km. However, it is
less appreciated by the public for its noise pollution.
The same is true, of course, for the tank container when carried on
a train. But as well as the advantage of low labour costs, the tank
container is more flexible in transport scheduling and time to
delivery. And it has the same advantages as the road tanker when it
comes to first and last mile costs, and cost of mobile equipment per
tonne. But it loses some of these advantages by having relatively
high filling costs.
Thus, the challenge for BASF is to leverage the potential benefits
of the tank container while making it even more competitive. A key
stage in this process is the development of the 45ft tank container,
built by Van Hool, which BASF introduced last year (see Bulk
The 45ft tank container has a loading capacity comparable to a rail tank car
Dr Thorsten Bieker
Distributor July/August 2015).
With 63cbm capacity and a maximum allowable weight of 75
tonnes, the 45ft tank has a loading capacity double that of a
conventional tank container and comparable to that of a rail tank car.
It uses the same techniques as 20ft and 30ft units. The 45ft tank
containers can be used for rail transport, inland waterways and
(when empty) also for road transport. Furthermore, they can be put
into container depots for storage. They are also equipped with
modern insulation techniques and heating systems. The ne