Hamburg gets an environmentally friendly alternative for supplying power to cruise ships lying at port. The LNG Hybrid Barge, Becker Marine Systems’ floating liquefied gas power plant christened at Hafencity on Saturday, is a world premiere.

Before invited guests, the LNG Hybrid Barge was christened the HUMMEL (“Bumblebee”) at Grasbrook Kai near the Hamburg Cruise Center located in the Port of Hamburg. The godmother was Dr. Monika Griefahn, Chief Sustainability Officer for AIDA Cruises. “The LNG Hybrid Barge will contribute towards making the air in Hamburg significantly cleaner,” said Dirk Lehmann and

Henning Kuhlmann, both Managing Directors of Becker Marine Systems, who developed and will be operating the barge.

Thanks to the use of the floating liquefied power plant, the future cruise ships will be supplied with energy produced from environmentally-friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) during their layovers at port. This fuel lowers emissions and particulates, compared to marine diesel fuel.

Sulphur oxides and soot particles are no longer emitted and the emission of nitrogen oxides will be lowered by up to 80% and carbon dioxide by an additional 30%.

As part of the christening, the first test connection was carried out with AIDA Cruises’ AIDAsol cruise ship. It is planned that starting with the beginning of the next cruise season in spring 2015, the LNG Hybrid Barge will supply AIDAsol as the first cruise ship at its home port Hamburg.

Two years after the start of cooperation between Becker Marine Systems and AIDA Cruises in summer 2012, the LNG Hybrid Barge arrived in Hamburg on 4th October 2014. Previously, at just under 77 m in length and 11 m in width, the HUMMEL had made a three week trip from the shipyard in Slovakia travelling up the Danube, Main and Rhine rivers and the North Sea to the Elbe.

Remaining work and testing of the first German seagoing vessel employing LNG technology then took place at Blohm + Voss.

Hamburg is thus the first port in the world in which Becker Marine Systems will be able to provide an external and low-emission power supply to cruise ships thanks to the LNG Hybrid Barge.