Mammoet has reached an important milestone as it completed its first electric-powered heavy transport.
On Thursday, the Dutch company Mammoet announced that it had replaced a production vessel at a chemical plant in the Netherlands using purely electric power.
The Shell facility produces feedstock for everyday applications, including medical equipment, car components and cellphones. When a key production vessel needed to be replaced, the customer was keen to see how this could be done with the lowest possible environmental impact, Hellenic Shipping News reported.
Mammoet has explored many options for the future, including a partnership with Scheuerle to transition their SPMT (self-propelled modular transporters) fleet to renewable energy.
The company said that the sheer force SPMTs are required to deliver in moving heavy items has presented significant barriers to finding an equivalent solution.
The ePPU (Electronic Power Pack Unit) was used with four axle lines of SPMT operating in an extremely tight area of the existing plant. There were only a few meters to manoeuvre the existing vessel out and drive the new one into position.
The space was so limited that not all SPMT lines could be positioned beneath the outgoing vessel, meaning that it needed to be secured above the front two-axle lines of SPMT. A crane was then used to remove the old vessel and lower its replacement onto the SPMT in the same position. This was then moved back into place, ready to be installed and commissioned, Mammoet explained.
The use of ePPU delivered important benefits for the project. “The ePPU is a critical step in how we support our customers with decarbonizing projects. But in this case, the benefits were not limited only to a lower carbon footprint. With work taking place in a highly confined area, we would have been highly conscious of the emissions generated by a typical diesel PPU. We would need to carefully manage operatives’ exposure to it. Using an electric model, we obliterated this issue and created a much quieter working environment.” Ludo Mous, Operations Director at Mammoet Europe, said.
The successful application of the ePPU is a beginning of a new development for Mammoet.
Mous added: “We were extremely pleased that the ePPU performed as expected, delivering a low-carbon solution for our customer. We expect demand for it to be high, particularly for projects looking for more sustainable options or where exhaust emissions must be kept to a minimum for safety reasons, such as civil projects taking place within tunnels or work inside nuclear facilities.”
