Half-way through the Innowatr project, time has come to reflect on its key achievements and more specifically on the French Freight Flow Coalition (FFC8)’s highlights, revolving around Sogestran’s recently launched H2-propelled Zulu 06.
📊 Setting the scene
Inland Waterway Transport is one of the most CO2 efficient transport modes per ton of goods carried, using only 17% of the energy needed by often-congested road transport and 50% of rail transport[1]. City centres are slowly closing their access to heavy duty trucks, implementing Low Emission Zones (LEZ) to meet the 2019 European Green Deal’s goal to reduce 90% of the transport sector emissions by 2050[2].
The InnoWaTr Project, partly funded by Interreg North Sea Programme, involves 22 partners and 8 freight flows coalitions offering innovative solutions to boost modal shift from road to inland waterways, to help reduce congestion, pollution, costs and regulatory hurdles. This collaborative approach between stakeholders in North Sea regions aims at proposing an inspiring strategy for follow-up, where interests, responsibilities and benefits are shared.
📣 Why FFC8 Stands Out?
The FFC8 offers an overarching collaboration between private cargo owners (Cuiller Frères, OBD, Paprec) and public stakeholders; benefitting from Sogestran’s vision for a decarbonised IWT, IDIT’s legal support and CIRCOE’s expertise in logistics optimisation. Together with VNF’s incentives and tools, the French Freight Flow Coalition offers a wide range of solutions to transition towards greener inland waterways activities.
Concretely, FFC8’s objective is to promote the use of alternative fuels for a more sustainable urban distribution. Three flows are being tested in real-life conditions (Construction materials, beverages and recycled cardboards) to analyse the performance of HVO fuel and hydrogen on the River Seine axis between the Gennevilliers Port hub and the urban wharves in central Paris.
The summer 2024 Olympics were a great opportunity to show IWT’s resilience and potential. While all waterborne services accessing the city centre of Paris were disrupted or suspended, Sogestran managed to make the most of the situation by offering alternative solutions to the three key customers involved in the InnowaTr project and by taking part in the set-up of the ceremony’s infrastructure.
🌟 What’s next?
After hosting the InnowaTr partners’ event in Paris at VNF’s headquarters last November, the French partners will gather once more in Bremen in March 2025 to explore other NSR solutions, share the lessons learnt and to consolidate the collaborative model at the core of the project. On that occasion, a promotional video of the FFC8 will showcase Sogestran’s Zulu barges; the result of years of R&D and determination to build a more sustainable IWT for the future generations.
📣 Find out more about the InnowaTr project and our FFC8 coalition:
Link: https://www.interregnorthsea.eu/innowatr/about-innowatr
[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2022/698918/EPRS_BRI(2022)698918_EN.pdf
[2] https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/transport-and-green-deal_en
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