Rhenus Project Logistics is organising the transportation, handling and storage of thirteen enormous MAN diesel engines and their fixtures. It is part of a complex project in which they will be used as a floating power station.
The engines have been built for Turkish energy supplier Karpowership which has developed a special floating power solution using decommissioned bulk carriers, heavy-cargo ships and inland waterway vessels and equipping them with LNG or diesel-powered generators. The solution caters to companies and important facilities like hospitals or schools in places with poor energy infrastructure.
Rhenus’ involvement in the project started last year when it was contracted to transport the engines from Saint-Nazaire in France to Tuzla in Turkey.
Rhenus Project Logistics launched the first part of the project in April when it transported the MAN 18V51/60 TS diesel engines – which are 15 metres long, 5 metres wide and almost 7 metres high – from their production site in Saint-Nazaire in France to Cuxhaven in Germany, where they were temporarily stored while Rhenus searched for a ship that could lift the heavy engines, which each weigh 325 tonnes.
Cuxport
‘Until we were able to ship the first engines to their place of deployment, they were initially stored at the Cuxport terminal in a building with sufficient ceiling height so that they were protected from any moisture,’ says Marcus Janowsky, Project Manager at Rhenus Project Logistics.
Six of the thirteen generators then set off on board the BBC Lagos on their way to Tuzla in Turkey on 9 November. ‘The project is particularly important for us because it firstly demonstrates the excellent cooperation between the different companies and units within the Rhenus Group. Secondly, handling this large and bulky load overland and on the water always requires special sensitivity and very precise planning – and we were able to provide this here,’ Janowsky says summarising the course of the project.
The generators arrived in Turkey at the end of November and have been installed on new Karpowerships. The remaining seven generators are due to be shipped during the next few months.
In total, Karpowership operates 22 floating power stations in more than ten different countries. According to the energy supplier, they meet the energy needs of about 34 million people.
This article first appeared on Project Cargo Journal, a sister publication of SWZ|Maritime.
