Doyle Shipping Group orders a hybrid RTG for Dublin Port

Seven wide, six high

Liebherr Container Cranes has sold a hybrid rubber-tyred gantry crane to Doyle Shipping Group for its terminal at Dublin Port. The new machine spans 25.9 metres — seven container rows plus a truck lane — and offers a lift height of 21 metres, one over six containers, with a safe working load of 41 tonnes. It is the twelfth Liebherr RTG at the Dublin Port terminal.

Doyle Shipping Group’s relationship with the manufacturer goes back to 1999, when it took the first of six Liebherr mobile harbour cranes. Five further LHMs followed, the first three RTGs arrived in 2007, and a ship-to-shore container crane was delivered in 2015.

“We are delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with DSG and to provide them with the latest technology in container handling. […] DSG are thoroughly familiar with the benefits of Liebherr equipment, and we are proud to continue our long-standing partnership with this new hybrid RTG.”

— Dan O’Shea, Area Sales Manager Europe, Liebherr Container Cranes

What the hybrid system does

The energy side of the crane is built around the LES 200, a capacitor system that captures the energy produced when the hoist lowers and when the machine brakes — energy that is otherwise dissipated as heat. It is fed back during peak demand, cutting the load on the genset and with it fuel use and emissions. Liebherr also points to lower running and maintenance costs as a consequence of the reduced duty on the diesel.

Capacitors suit the duty cycle of a container crane well: they charge and discharge rapidly and repeatedly without the degradation a battery would show under the same pattern of short, high-power bursts. An RTG spends its shift lifting and lowering boxes over a narrow height band, so the amount of recoverable energy per cycle is both large and predictable, which is what makes the arithmetic work.

New build or retrofit

The same system is offered both on new machines and as a retrofit package through Liebherr Transform, the manufacturer’s upgrade and modification arm — relevant for an operator such as DSG with a substantial installed base of older Liebherr RTGs at the same terminal.

O’Shea framed the order in sustainability terms, arguing that equipment choice is a first step towards a lower-impact supply chain and citing the group’s gold rating from EcoVadis.

Source: Liebherr — Photos: Liebherr