Germany: VTG and Chart perform first LNG tank car loading

VTG Aktiengesellschaft, European wagon hire and rail logistics company, loaded an LNG tank car with

cryogenic LNG at Brunsbüttel Ports’ Elbe port for the first time, in cooperation with Chart Ferox a.s. and

PRIMAGAS. The companies also built the tank car’s tank. More than 80m3 of LNG was pumped into the

wagons from two PRIMAGAS LNG trucks. This is yet another milestone in the development of LNG

transportation via rail.

“We need LNG in Germany’s energy mix, not only to be able to guarantee an independent energy

supply, but also one which is stable and takes the environment into account,” said Norbert Brackmann,

Member of the German Parliament. “I’m delighted that the companies here today are innovative and

are showing the desire to invest in the future, setting a good example to others,” he continued, showing

support for the leadership role the four companies represented at this meeting are taking in the LNG

sector.

“With a volume of some 111m3, the LNG tank car can carry approximately 95-100m3 of product,” said

Sven Wellbrock, Head of the VTG Rail Europe business segment, outlining the tank car’s features. “Per

wagon, this corresponds to an energy value of about 600,000 kilowatt hours.” As a ‘rolling pipeline’,

industries with a very large energy requirement can be supplied permanently with LNG in this way. In

cooperation with Brunsbüttel Ports as an LNG terminal location, using the LNG tank cars to supply the

Baltic Sea ports would be a conceivable idea.

The fact that Brunsbüttel was selected as the location for the first test load of a VTG LNG tank car is no

coincidence. “We would like to position ourselves as a leading LNG location in Germany and, in

Brunsbüttel, the various potential uses of the substance can be brought together in an ideal manner.

These are, namely, sea-faring vessel bunkering at the heavily used Elbe/Northern Baltic Sea canal

intersection, the high gas requirements of regional industrial companies in the Brunsbüttel ChemCoast

Park and in Hamburg and the possibility of distributing LNG further by rail in cooperation with VTG, as

well as regasification and feeding into the pipeline network,” explained Frank Schnabel, Managing

Director of the Brunsbüttel Ports GmbH/SCHRAMM Group.

NGS INDIA