The Floating Transshipment Container terminal

Abstract

Compared to land, rail and air, sea transport has proven to have the largest contribution to the transport of goods and is witnessing a continuous growth over the years. The existing ports are dealing with an increasing flow of goods and the transporting vessels, resulting in capacity problems. New innovations and technology are needed to encounter these problems and in a sustainable way. One of the solutions proposed is to expand towards the sea. A floating port at a certain distance from land could reduce the pressure on these ports. The objective of the thesis is to examine feasibility of an offshore floating terminal for container transshipment with an annual throughput of 1 million TEU. Different locations around the world with high potential for the container transshipment have been proposed as possible locations for the floating terminal. The first step was to design the terminal according to certain requirements. Except for accommodating a number of activities, the terminal has also the function of creating protected waters for the vessels calling on it. Different floating concepts were examined for their eligibility and finally a pontoon-shaped structure was chosen for the form of the hull of the terminal. The terminal has a rectangular- shaped layout with a length dimension of 1190m and a width of 240m. Berthing facilities and 11 quay cranes are provided at the lee side of the terminal for the loading and unloading operations of the containers. The heart of the study was to draw conclusions about the operability of the designed system based on the results of a hydrodynamic research. Computer models such as DELFRAC and SEAWAY were used to calculate the responses of both the terminal and vessel, in different sea conditions. According to the criteria for container vessel motions during lifting operations and the response calculations, it was concluded that the (un)loading operations of the containers could proceed safely up to sea conditions with a significant wave height of 3m. This state represents the Serviceability Limit State (SLS) for the designed system and is of importance for determining the downtime of the terminal as result of the wind waves generated motions. Station keeping of the terminal is necessary to prevent the terminal from being drifted away by sea loads. After considering a number of alternatives to achieve this function, it is finally chosen for a combined DP thrusters- turret mooring system. The system will make it possible for the terminal to maintain a beam-on position to waves during operating conditions. This is to fulfil the function as a breakwater. During high seas, the terminal rotates till a bow-on position (heading) to waves. The last characteristic of the system will result in reduction of the sea loads on the terminal and thus also the mooring loads during aggressive sea conditions. The total construction cost of the terminal, including the necessary equipment is estimated for 448 million Euros. The terminal revenues are represented in the transshipment fee that the shipping liners must pay when using the terminal. According to the results of the financial analyses, a minimum fee of 125 Euro per TEU must be charged in order to make the terminal cost-effective.