Antwerp wants to halve emissions
Ports are among the biggest producers of pollutants. The port of Antwerp therefore wants to reduce its emissions by at least half with a forward-looking project.
A large share of the pollution in the port comes from the ships themselves, which often still have to burn diesel even when they are at anchor in order to maintain the necessary functions. This includes, for example, the electricity needed to cool goods or supply the crew, even when the ship is not sailing. Then there is the industry in the port and, of course, the trucks that come from all over the world to bring and pick up goods.
The Port of Antwerp has the largest concentration of energy and chemical companies among European ports. Antwerp now wants to massively reduce its CO2 emissions with a new project. Seven leading chemical and energy companies have joined forces under the name Antwerp@C. The aim is to liquefy the CO2 emissions, store them temporarily and transport them across borders. To this end, infrastructure for the capture, absorption, conversion and storage of CO2 is to be built on both sides of the Scheldt, which crosses the port. Transport to the industrial areas that use the gas as a raw material for the production of chemical compounds will then take place by sea and via pipelines. The goal is to reduce the carbon dioxide produced in the port by at least half by 2030. Participating companies are Air Liquide, BASF, Borealis, ExxonMobil, Ineos7, TotalEnergies, Fluxys and of course Port of Antwerp.
The Port of Rotterdam deals with air pollution in a completely different way. There, the Maasvlakte area has been declared an environmental zone. The Maasvlakte is a filled-in part of the port of Rotterdam that extends into the North Sea and can therefore function as a deep-sea port. Only trucks that have at least Euronorm 6 are allowed there. However, it must be mentioned that the Maasvlakte is only a tiny part of the entire Rotterdam port area, which takes up a total of 100 square kilometres. The wide strip around the Maasvlakte is used as a recreational area. But on the 40 kilometres of harbour between the Maasvlakte and the city of Rotterdam, where there is also an environmental zone, no traffic restrictions apply. If you want to improve the air there, too, there will probably be no way around another low emission zone sooner or later. Of course, the same applies to the port of Antwerp: an environmental zone that includes not only the city but also the transhipment terminals would reduce emissions there even further than is now the case with the new project.