January, 30, 2025 [Hamburg Business] – Digital twins to improve safety and environment-friendliness of tank farms – EUR 3 million for project.
 

The four-year Digi Tank project launched Thursday (January 16, 2025) at Evos in the Port of Hamburg to explore how liquid and gaseous goods can be handled and stored in a safer and more environment-friendly manner. Digital processing and monitoring of cargo handling are important to achieving this goal. The German Ministry for Digital and Transport is investing EUR 3 million of the total EUR 4 million costs as part of the Innovative Port Technologies (IHATEC II) funding scheme.

Digital twins central to project
“Our focus is on combining state-of-the-art technology such as digital twins and AI with emphasis on safety, sustainability and human-centred working conditions,” said Michael Lübke, Managing Director of Evos. The main goal of the DigiTank project is to develop a digital twin, the use of an innovative control centre and a mobile monitoring system for tank farms. Then storage can be optimized and in real time. “We are shaping the future of logistics and strengthening Hamburg as a centre of innovation,” Lübke stressed. The project inolves Evos Hamburg GmbH, Schotte Automotive GmbH & Co. KG, the University of Duisburg-Essen, Port of Hamburg Marketing e.V. and ma-co maritimes competenzcentrum GmbH. UTV – Independent Tank Storage Association/Unabhängiger Tanklagerverband e.V. and the Centre for Logistics and Transport (ZLV).

Digi Tank for safer and sustainable operations
Tank farms in the Port of Hamburg are crucial to the energy supply and far beyond the metropolitan region, according to Melanie Leonhard, Minister of Economics and Labour. The port must be future-proofed and use modern processes to meet this key national task safely and efficiently, she added. Digitalisation and automation should make work in the tank terminals easier and more attractive and could ease the shortage of skilled labour in the long term.