Heat waves, droughts, heavy rain, floods – not only municipalities and disaster relief agencies will have to adapt to new challenges in the wake of climate change. The industry is also preparing for it. The chemical company BASF, for example, is currently developing a special tanker that should be able to sail on the Rhine even when the water is low. In the hot summer of 2018, the BASF people were faced with the challenge that the river level in the Rhine was so low that conventional tankers got stuck in the ports.
According to BASF, the new tanker will be one of the largest tankers on the Rhine “and its strengths are particularly evident when the water on the Rhine is low”. Even the critical point in the Rhine near Kaub could still pass with a load of 650 tons at a water level of 30 centimeters (this corresponds to a water depth of around 1.60 meters). “That is significantly more than any other tanker available today,” says BASF. Even at medium low tide, its transport capacity of around 2500 tons will be twice as high as that of conventional inland waterways. Commissioning for the new ship is scheduled for the end of 2022.