HGK Shipping has designed a new kind of river-going coastal vessel in order to meet the requirements of industry in an increasingly hydrogen-based economy.
Using the “Vanguard” project name, the continent’s largest inland waterway shipping company has designed the first river-seagoing gas tanker in Europe to transport cold liquefied ammonia (NH3) and liquefied CO2 (LCO2).
The “Vanguard” is 125 metres long and 17.50 metres wide. Among other things, it is able to transport cold liquefied ammonia and liquefied carbon dioxide in its tanks.
In order to make the transport operations as sustainable and resource-efficient as possible, a Wind Assisted Propulsion System (WAPS), a kind of sail, supports the diesel-electric “futurefuel-ready” drive system. The enormous experience gained from other HGK Shipping designs for optimising operations in shallow waters has also been integrated in the “Vanguard” concept.
Steffen Bauer, the CEO of HGK Shipping, contextualises the innovative ship design in his plans for the company’s development. “The increasing process of decarbonisation of production processes is changing flows of goods. This is then opening up opportunities for our sector and for HGK Shipping to offer the economy new transport solutions that are available at short notice. The ‘Vanguard’ offers industry additional capacity to safely and sustainably transport liquefied ammonia and carbon dioxide from Scandinavia as far as the Iberian Peninsula and use the seaports as gateways to the network of European inland waterways.”
The river Rhine in particular, the upper regions of which will be navigable for the ‘Vanguard’, offers an efficient alternative for pipeline structures, which either don’t exist or cannot be built in the short term, for industries that have a strong presence on this river.
…the HGK Shipping CEO says.
