TANK CONTAINERS
WorldCargo
news
Proving the green credentials of tanks
I
t has long been claimed in the tank
community that tank containers offer
The tank container industry promotes its units as the greenest
tainers are the safest, most reliable and
most efficient means of transporting bulk
a more environment-friendly means of
way of moving liquids, powders and gases. The application of a
liquids, powders and gases.
carrying products to the final customer than
alternative forms of transport.
new methodology will reveal how true that claim is
No complacency
In a very basic comparison between a The first of the other presentations, en-
shipment of steel drums in a freight con- manufacture to final disposal, will form The key determinant in these envi- study will not be the only ITCO pres- titled Safe Handling of Tank Containers, will
tainer and a consignment in a tank con- an integral part of the overall assessment. ronmental impact assessments will be the entation in Munich. The Organisation be made by Bill Brassington of ETS
tainer, for example, the disparities are stark. For the drum and flexitank options for volume of CO emissions generated. The has made considerable progress in con- Consulting. Although tank containers
2
A 20ft freight container can carry 80 example, the contribution of the freight LCP study will be unlike any other pro- solidating the tank container industry have built an exemplary safety record
drums of 200 litres each, or 16,000 litres container to the “carbon footprint” will duced for the tank container industry and body of knowledge in recent years and over the past 35 years and the current
in total, while a 20ft tank can carry 24- also be taken into account. The return of Braithwaite has promised some surpris- two further papers will be given at the global fleet of 250,000-plus units has
25,000 litres, depending on road weight the empty drums and flexitanks to Ger- ing conclusions for his ITCO Tank Vil- seminar to highlight this achievement. been expanding at a record rate over the
restrictions and the density of the prod- many for final disposal is being assumed lage audience. Each of the two presentations will un- past three years, a number of recent in-
uct to be carried. Then, there are the is- for this study. The LCP Consulting environmental derline, in their own way, why tank con- cidents have resulted in questions being
sues of the handling of drum residues fol-
lowing discharge and drum disposal and/
or recycling.
Plugging a gap
Until now there has been no definitive
evidence to support the belief that tank
16-18 June 2009
containers offer a superior environmen-
tal option. In an attempt to plug this gap
Bremen Exhibition & Conference Centre,
in the industry’s body of knowledge and
to determine the extent that tank con-
Bremen, Germany
tainers do offer a greener solution the
International Tank Container Organisa-
tion (ITCO) has commissioned Profes-
“Success
sor Alan Braithwaite and his team of lo-
comes to those
gistics experts at LCP Consulting to look
into the matter.
who can weather
LCP Consulting will employ its Car- the storm.”
bon-to-Serve methodology to investigate
I Ching No. 3
the end-to-end, life cycle environmental
impact of tank containers and alternative
transport forms such as drums and
flexitanks.
The results of this study will be avail-
able by mid-May 2009 and will be pre-
sented at a special seminar that ITCO has
organised at the Transport Logistics 2009
event in Munich on 12-15 May 2009.
ITCO will once again have its own
Tank Container Village within the large
Transport Logistics exhibition at the New
Munich Trade Fair Centre. A total of
Survival of the fittest
1,600 exhibitors from 53 countries will
participate in the event and within the
ITCO Tank Village companies offering
Join us for TOC Europe 2009, the most influential conference in your industry.
equipment and services to the global tank
container industry will display their wares.
Professor Braithwaites’s presentation,
entitled The Environmental Impact of Tank
Key
Containers Compared to Alternative Forms
BOOK
of Transport will take place in a confer-
discussion
ence room adjacent to the Tank Village
NOW
on 14 May.
topics:
In embarking on their study the ex-
perts at LCP Consulting are confronting
the challenges inherent in both generat-
• Taking the measure of global events – Where do
Book your place before the 27 March and benefit from:
ing a reliable estimate of the carbon in-
we stand now and where are we headed?
extremely preferential rates
tensity of different end-to-end supply • Dealing with the here and now – Taking costs
chains and identifying the benefits that
out of the system
Book today at:
arise from achieving best-in-class per-
• Preparing for the rebound – Using upheaval to
www.tocevents-europe.com/book
formance.
The ITCO initiative is given added
drive new efficiency, innovation and value
or contact:
impetus because not only is global warm-
Nisrine Nehme
ing now an issue impacting every busi-
Visit www.tocevents-europe.com/agenda
Email: nisrine.nehme@toc-events.com
ness enterprise. but environmental per-
formance is also becoming an embedded
to find out more. Phone: +44 (0)20 3377 3288
and inescapable part of corporate social
responsibility.
Traditionally, it has not been the re-
sponsibility of any one link in the supply
chain to look after the environmental
impact of the activities elsewhere along
the chain. However, that is changing and,
as Alan Braithwaite will point out, LCP
Consulting’s Carbon-to-Serve model
holds the potential to not only identify
the environmental impact of the entire
supply chain but also to foster collabora-
tion along the chain in order to improve
overall environmental performance and
reduce costs.
Life cycle assessment
The LCP assessment of tank containers
and alternative forms of transport will
consider the complete supply chain, from
manufacture and materials to positioning The Shipping, Ports and Terminals Event for Europe
and handling operations, cleaning, land
and sea journeys, port equipment, empty
movements, round trip potential, life cy-
Organised by: Primary Sponsor: Sponsors:
cles, recycling and ultimate disposal.
The comparison will be based on a
movement of a consignment of a given
size from the Ruhr via Rotterdam to
Shanghai and onwards 50 km to the final
customer. However, the full cradle-to-
grave life cycle of the transport unit, from
March 2009 37
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40