Since yesterday, the Volta 1, the first electric tug in Europe, has been sailing in the Antwerp port area. With the commissioning of Volta 1, the port is taking another step towards greening.
In the long term, the port wants no tugboats to run on diesel fuel anymore because diesel still causes a lot of emissions. Earlier, the port also commissioned a tug running on methanol and one on hydrogen.
First of 6 RSD-tugs
The Volta 1 has a tractive force of 70 tons, allowing the ship to achieve the same performance as a traditional diesel tug. The batteries are fully charged in two hours, after which the ship, which can be used as a front and back tug, can sail for 12 hours.
The vessel was built by the Dutch Damen Shipyards Group in Vietnam and arrived in Antwerp in November 2024 after a journey of more than 10,000 km. It is the first of six Reversed Stern Drive (RSD) tugs for the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. An RSD tug is designed according to a double bow principle and equipped with a patented Twin Fig skeg for optimal stability and maneuverability
About half of the tugs are green
According to Port of Antwerp-Bruges CEO Jacques Vandermeiren, the Volta 1 is a good example of the strategy to actively integrate sustainable technology. “As a global port, we take our responsibility to pull the maritime sector into the energy transition,” Vandermeiren says. “Over the past year and a half, we introduced the world’s first hydrogen and methanol-powered tugs. By testing these technologies side by side in practice, we can determine which solution scores best in terms of emissions, cost, autonomy, and performance.”
Today, about half of the 20 tugs that the port authority uses, and the tug service accounts for nearly 85% of port-related CO2 emissions, are more or less ‘green’. Eight diesel-powered tugs use a system that reduces their emissions by 40%. So, in addition, there is a tug on hydrogen, one on (gray) methanol, and one on electricity.
Gray methanol is made from fossil fuels such as natural gas. Eventually, though, that vessel must run on cleaner fuels such as green or blue methanol. Gray methanol still releases CO2, although soot and nitrogen oxide emissions are lower. Even hydrogen production today still comes partly from gas. For large ships, therefore, the industry is increasingly looking at ammonia.
