ports of the world
In Antwerp, the port is dreaming in green
Audio 03:31
A ship docks in the port of Antwerp, May 20, 2022. © Valeria Mongelli / AFP
By: Alexis Bedu Follow
3 mins
Ports of the World
takes us to Belgium, where the ports of Antwerp and Bruges have just merged.
Their ambition: to be a model of green and sustainable port.
For this, the second largest port in Europe relies on the import of hydrogen and the capture of CO2.
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Containers as far as the eye can see.
In the channel of the port of Antwerp, almost 290 million tonnes of goods are loaded and unloaded each year.
On these kilometers of quays, containers and chimneys from which escape white smoke.
Michel Lory organizes port visits by boat.
He knows every nook and cranny of these 13,000 hectares: “
What makes the port of Antwerp so unique,
explains Michel Lory,
is the presence of chemical companies, and therefore of production.
The ports in the world are loading/unloading with a bit of industry on the side, but in Antwerp, there are both, and both are gigantic.
»
These chemical companies are the economic heart of Flanders.
Of the 600,000 workers in the port, more than 42% work in these production centres.
With companies such as Total, ExxonMobile and the British chemical giant Ineos: "
Petrochemicals must radically change their way of doing things, the port must work all the energy it needs, it must actually green, and the challenge is gigantic .
It is as gigantic as the port.
continues the guide.
18 million tons of CO2: the carbon emissions of the port of Antwerp are impressive.
The stated objective is to reduce them by half by 2030. And to achieve this, there are many projects and investments.
In particular a system for capturing and storing this CO2.
“
We are going to build pipelines, we are going to build a terminal which will liquefy the CO2 in order to be able to export it to gas fields in the North Sea,
explains Jacques Vandermeiren, general manager of the port of Antwerp-Bruges.
That's phase 1, phase 2 is to offer companies the possibility of having an alternative to gas and oil today.
And so there, we inevitably arrive at hydrogen, green hydrogen, a product based on
renewable energies.
»
Green hydrogen, for Jacques Vandermeireen, is the key to this merger between the port of Bruges, located on the coast, and that of Antwerp, which is 80 kilometers from the sea: "
It's much more interesting to have a hydrogen terminal and then to build pipelines to bring the hydrogen to businesses and consumers in the hinterland.
And the hinterland is not only the Antwerp platform, it is also the German, French, etc. hinterland.
So it's going to be a gateway for the green energies of the future, which is absolutely essential to achieve this ambition of climate neutrality in 2050.
”
The merger of the two ports also makes it possible to grow and weigh against the giant Rotterdam, the first European port which is multiplying expansion projects.
Annick De Ridder is vice-mayor of Antwerp and president of the board of directors of the two ports together: “
We are aiming high!
We want to become the leading port importer of green energy in Europe.
And we can only achieve this by working very close, together.
»
But the growing activity, particularly in Antwerp, poses capacity problems.
There is no more room, continues Michel Lory, the port guide: "
We are at 80% of our capacity, we are in fact quite happy to merge with Zeebrugge to be able to allow some types of alternatives for our customers, which are already starting to growl.
»
An expansion is planned by 2030, a little late, explains the guide, showing on the map a little further north the main competitor Rotterdam which has a string of successes.
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