Surprisingly versatile in emission-free operation

At Verboon Maasland, working sustainably is not something of recent years. Ever since 2013, they have been firmly committed to reducing CO2 emissions in their operations. The family business is among the leaders in the field of emission-free working. At InfraTech 2025, Verboon Maasland will show the many 'flavors' of emission-free working at stand 1.214.

The third generation is now at the helm of the family business that was founded in 1951. "Even the fourth generation is already presenting itself," says Arno Schnitker, tender and acquisition manager at Verboon Maasland. "Working sustainably is in our DNA and we do it from an intrinsic motivation. We were fairly early in thinking about how to reduce our carbon footprint on projects. In 2013, for example, we applied olivine on a project, a mineral that binds CO2, which allowed us to reduce CO2 emissions by 50%. In 2016 we occupied rung 3 on the CO2 Performance Ladder, since 2020 we are on the highest rung 5."

Sustainable alternative

For all projects, Verboon Maasland looks at the possibilities of carrying out the work in a more sustainable way and preferably emission-free. "The latter is unfortunately not always possible yet," Arno acknowledges. "Then we go for the best alternative. A good example was dredging within a peat meadow area. Dredging releases methane gas, which is 28 times more harmful than CO2. During this project, we captured the methane gas before it went into the dredge pump and used a pipeline to drain and flare it, converting it to the less harmful CO2." 

Electric fleet

Since 2020, Verboon Maasland has also been investing heavily in making its machinery more sustainable. "Much of our equipment is now electric, with a recent acquisition being an electric 105-ton wire crane. Because a power connection is often lacking on projects where we operate, we entered into a covenant with Nexus Energy to test whether hydrogen could be a good source of energy for us. Based on that covenant, we are now working in Amstelveen for the Rijnland Water Board on the redevelopment of the Kleine Poel. Here we are using exclusively battery-electric equipment, ranging from cranes and a pusher to a dredging pusher and an earth press. These are charged with one large hydrogen supply and a hydrogen generator."

Different flavors

In January 2025, Verboon Maasland will start a pilot with the Port of Rotterdam Authority. "For nine weeks we will dredge a harbor with our electric wire crane, which we will alternately power with three power sources: hydrogen-powered, battery-powered and conventional diesel-powered," Arno explains. "The pilot is mainly intended to collect data and experience in practice which technology works best, which causes the least inconvenience and which has the best footprint for this type of dredging. Furthermore, we are in the middle of an eight-year framework contract with the Delfland Water Board, under which we will perform the work increasingly emission-free as the contract progresses and we are allowed to raise our unit prices on that ratio. In doing so, the client offers us the scope to invest in more sustainable equipment, creating a win-win situation. In short, there are many roads that eventually lead to an emission-free future. And we are happy to play into that."