A dot on the horizon

Delft Outlook, 2009.2

This spring will mark ten years since the Port of Rotterdam Authority and TU Delft started collaborating in what is known as the Port Research Centre Rotterdam-Delft. A look back and a selection of some of the current research projects.Download as .pdf

The view from the 17th floor of the World Port Center is breathtaking. Off in the distance, the Noordereiland connects to the shore by means of an old railway bridge, while to the north high-rise buildings stretch all the way from the city centre to the river. Just below lies the Erasmus Bridge, under which speedy ferryboats and sluggish river barges pass each other in a dance that seemingly never ends. To the west, far beyond the old harbour district, the international Port of Rotterdam stretches all the way to the horizon.

This office on the Wilhelminakade is the workplace of company strategist Henk de Bruijn and senior advisor Teun Tuijtel, men whose broad views have allowed them to command such lofty positions. “We are about to face new challenges,” says Tuijtel, who from the start has been involved in the collaboration with TU Delft. “The current recession is an incentive for forward thinking.” Long-term planning, vision, and strategy – Henk de Bruijn likes to test his ideas in a dialogue with TU Delft: “Just hold up a mirror to us, whether we ask for it or not.”

“The collaboration between TU Delft and the Port of Rotterdam Authority is still defined in a very general way” stated an article published in Delta, TU Delft’s university newspaper, on 6 June 1999. “Together we are in search of new concepts for the infrastructure of the Port of Rotterdam. According to spokesman Dr Rob Stikkelman, of the Delft research institute Interduct, the aim is sustainable improvement: ‘How to make the area more profitable, while reducing its impact on the environment.”

The work plan of the Port Research Centre (prc), published in 2009, states this slightly differently in its mission statement: “Generating, coordinating, and executing innovative, strategic research projects for use in the Rotterdam port and industrial area to strengthen its international competitiveness.”

The project kicked off in 1999 with a brain-storming session, during which the two parties jointly tabled 90 new ideas. “At first, the Port delegation appeared to be controlling matters,” recalls Stikkelman (Faculty of Technology, Policy, and Management), who serves as the university’s liason with the prc. Stikkelman’s initial role was to ‘shop around’ the research questions among the various TU Delft research groups. He recalls that one of the research subjects included ‘multiple use of space’. Oranges and crude oil don’t go well together when stored on the same quay, but each new successful combination saves space in the port area. They also looked at low-noise, clean transport for the port (using electric vehicles powered by fuel cells running on methanol), and collapsible containers (a product now being offered by Holland Container Innovations). “When we started, we considered TU Delft rather tunnel-visioned,” says Tuijtel, who, together with Professor Han Ligteringen, a hydraulic engineer at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, is the co-chairman of the prc programme council. “Collaboration between different faculties was awkward, but that has improved a lot. For the first two years we were simply testing the water, but after that the collaboration became professionalised – on both sides.”

This professional approach is reflected in the work plan, in which research projects are arranged according to theme, listing the responsibilities of TU Delft and the Port Authority. The research themes are Space, Access, Energy, and Miscellaneous. Every quarter a progress report is published in which a column lists the various projects, with smiley or sad faces indicating the progress of each project. Additional explanations include: ‘Project leader has left TU Delft’ and ‘Concept still to be finalised’, which the programme council must then decide about.

“We decided to use a project-wise method,” Tuijtel explains. Each research proposal must include a strategy plan, and must be approved by the programme council. Tuijtel: “It’s not quite as rigid a way of doing things as we’re used to in Rotterdam, but you need to be able to set deadlines and make mutual arrangements. We simply tightened the reins a bit.”

Henk de Bruijn, the current director of corporate strategy for the Port of Rotterdam Authority, will soon take over Tuijtel’s position as co-chairman of the programme council. In De Bruijn’s view, the collaboration with TU Delft is mainly exploratory: “We place a dot on the horizon, and then retrace our steps to see what we can do about it today. The projects are more intended for setting the agenda than being realised.” De Bruijn says that collaborating with the university is especially useful during the early project stages, with both parties working together to narrow down the questions to a point where consultants and engineering companies can get to work on the construction stages. Tuijtel: “That’s the right way of doing things. You need to clearly define the boundaries together.” While De Bruijn adds: “If you ask a professor or a teaching assistant a question, you get an answer, but above all you get lots of answers you didn’t ask for.” As the collaboration progressed, mutual understanding grew. The Port Authority started to see that researchers – obstinate though they can be – sometimes said things that made sense, and vice versa, with the university community developing a better appreciation of applied research. “We grew closer,” De Bruijn summarises. Last year, the renewed collaboration agreement between TU Delft and the Port Authority included the funding of three professorial chairs at the faculties of Civil Engineering and Geosciences; Technology, Policy, and Management; and Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering). An additional parttime chair at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences may follow later this year. The Port Authority is willing to fund research, but also has certain expectations, such as clarity about the organisation, and especially about the results. De Bruijn: “Will we agree to get the right results, or should we be happy whatever the results?” Tuijtel joins in: “There has to be something in it for us. We don’t conduct research for its own sake; it has to have added value.”

For the next decade, Space and Access will remain the main themes. In addition, both parties want more attention given to Energy and Sustainability. “We’re trying to get Energy accepted as a discussion point,” says TU Delft’s Stikkelman. “Think of co2 extraction and storage, or coal gasification. Both are of major importance to the Rotterdam petrochemical industry.”

De Bruijn would like to establish a highsustainability container terminal on the new port expansion area, with docked ocean vessels no longer generating their own power from polluting heavy oil, but rather using shore-based power instead. “The port as test bed,” as he likes to call it. The challenge for TU Delft and the Port Authority will be to inspire the major industries in the area, such as apm Terminals (apmt) and European Container Terminals (ect), to become more innovative.