TECHNOLOGY Ӏ SECTOR REPORT


GREEN LIGHT FoR HIGH-TECH


Technology develops all the time. Julian Champkin finds that the latest crane technologies not only help crane owners but are green and sustainable as well.


Given the nature of the last decade most technological advances in almost any industry you can to name have been centred on the digital revolution. Smart tech, Industry 4.0, Big Data, and the Internet of Things have been truly transformative: we live now in a world in which even our fridges have chips in them. Small surprise then that most of the new developments in cranes and lifting technology involve one form or another of digitisation. There are other threads though. Sustainability is one. The move


Digital tools allowed Mammoet's engineers to lift a new filter module for ArcelorMittal before setting foot on site


to reduce or eliminate fossil fuel, diesel in particular, has led, and is leading to, electrically powered cranes – especially for city centres but by no means limited to those areas of operation. Hydrogen is less-developed but is being spoken of as an alternative fuel, either to be burned in internal combustion engines – in which case the exhaust is water, not CO2 – or for hydrogen fuel cells. So called ‘green’ hydrogen is made by passing electricity through water, so, if the electricity source is


renewable, it is genuinely carbon- neutral; ‘blue’ hydrogen is sourced from cracking hydrocarbon petroleum products, so does have a carbon footprint. Materials science is yet a third technological thread. Advances in that field have led, for example, to synthetic fibre ropes – for which see the article on page 52. These threads are linked: there


is huge overlap between materials use and recyclability, and between digital know-how and reducing carbon emissions.


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42 CRANES TODAY


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