Overview
The Directive 2014/94/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (“the Directive”) defines a common framework of measures for the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure in the European Union in order to minimise dependence on oil and to mitigate the environmental impact of transport. It sets out minimum requirements for the building-up of alternative fuels infrastructure, including LNG (liquefied natural gas) stations with non-discriminatory access for LNG fuelled vessels and road vehicles. According to the Directive, a core network of refuelling points for LNG at maritime and inland ports should be available at least by the end of 2025 and 2030, respectively. Refuelling points for LNG include, inter alia, LNG terminals, tanks, mobile containers, bunker vessels and barges.
The Action contributes to the development of the TEN-T Rhine-Alpine corridor, which aims to tackle externalities, sustainability and innovation.
The main objective of the Action is to promote the use of LNG as fuel for inland navigation and the logistics industry in the German market. The development of the Rhine Corridor will be the proof-of-concept for a Germany-wide, and in a wider extend a European-wide roll-out.
The first specific objective of the Action is to gain knowledge about the potential of LNG markets in Germany and Austria and to elaborate the structure of a roll-out strategy. This will be achieved with a study on customer demand analysis and an outline for a wide scale roll-out of LNG distribution infrastructure to decrease infrastructure costs and to better understand client´s needs (activity 1).
The second specific objective of the Action is to increase the LNG availability in the Rhine for inland navigation and road transport. This will be achieved through real life trials with the permitting, construction and testing of 2 small-scale terminals, of 1.000 m3 capacity each, in the ports of Duisburg and Mannheim (activities 2, 3 and 4).
To ensure that the Action is delivered on time and within budget, a Project Management activity (activity 5) is part of the Action.