Global warming is impacting more than vegetation and air pollution: the shortage of rainfall in recent European summers also has frequently interrupted navigation on the continent’s main shipping artery, the Rhine river, and played havoc with chemical supply chains. For over two years, the world’s biggest chemical producer, BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com), has been at the drawing board, working on solutions to make its headquarters’ site more resistant to low-water incidents and thus more competitive (see Plasteurope.com of 26.06.2019). To ease logistical bottlenecks under extreme conditions, the group has now commissioned a special tanker. Set for delivery in late 2022, the vessel, being built by Stolt Tankers, will be operated by the shipping company exclusively for BASF.

The chemical group’s initiative to design its own tanker was triggered by the extreme drought of summer 2018, when low water levels on the Rhine repeatedly brought shipping to a halt and led several European plastics producers to declare forces majeures (see Plasteurope.com of 10.12.2018). Designing its own ship was a matter of necessity, says Uwe Liebelt, head of European Site & Verbund Management at the company. A barge that would match BASF’s needs was not available, so, together with a consortium of shipbuilders, the engineers at the chemical producer developed the concept and contributed their own expertise.

Considerably larger than conventional Rhine tankers, which usually run 110 m by 11.5 m, BASF says its new 135 m by 17.5 m river vessel, powered by three electric motors, offers significantly more flexibility at low water levels and thus enable a “significant increase” in transport volumes. For example, the ship can pass the critical point on the river near Kaub in Germany with a cargo of 650 t even in water as shallow as 1.60 m. At average low water levels, the transport capacity of around 2,500 t will be twice that of conventional inland vessels.

The ship’s high load-bearing capacity with a shallow draught should ensure safe operation and full manoeuvrability in extreme low-water situations, said Stolt Tankers president Lucas Vos. As the new barge will transport chemicals, it is being outfitted with 10 stainless steel tanks and three separate loading systems, ensuring that it is suitable for corrosive products such as acids and alkalis.

Along with developing a new Rhine tanker, BASF’s site management is taking other precautions to make its Ludwigshafen location more resilient to prolonged low-water events. Together with Germany’s Federal Institute of Hydrology, the company has developed a digital early warning system for low water with an advance warning time of up to six weeks. To improve logistics, loading points have been converted and expanded to be able to switch shipments to alternative modes of transport, such as rail. The latest measures build on earlier moves implemented since 2018, which include new tank cars for rail transport to bring rail shipping costs in line with those of barge transport, and the improvement of its plant cooling systems to reduce dependency on water from the Rhine (see Plasteurope.com of 13.11.2018 and 13.05.2019).