Innovative gas tanker should beat pipeline

An innovative gas tanker for sea-river shipping that will serve industry in Western Europe right down to its capillaries. Germany’s HGK Shipping is coming up with the design for a cruising tanker, the Vanguard.

If CEO Steffen Bauer’s dream comes true, a new type of ship will be sailing on the Rhine and along Europe’s coasts in a few years: the Vanguard, which at 125 x 17.50 metres will be quite a bit bigger than the current generation of cruising liners. Yet this tanker can make it as far as the Upper Rhine. And she should also feel at home in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and along the Atlantic coast.

Ammonia

The market for liquid gas transportation will grow strongly in the coming years, HGK believes. Hydrogen (packaged as ammonia) is going to play a much bigger role in our economy. In addition, a big demand for CO2 disposal is emerging. Under the project name Vanguard, the continent’s largest inland shipping company has designed Europe’s first sea-river gas tanker for this purpose. The tanker is suitable for transporting cold liquid ammonia (NH3), liquid CO2 (LCO2) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
According to HGK, the sea-river vessel idea offers great advantages: because the tanker sails directly to its destination, it eliminates transhipment in seaports. The Vanguard tankers sail from the supplier to the customer inland in one go. Apart from economic advantages and speed, this also offers more safety.

Pipeline

HGK: ‘Because no transhipment between modes of transport is required, this transport solution creates great added value. This applies both to the transport for the expected supply of hydrogen from Spain and Portugal, for example, and to the transport of the captured CO2 to empty offshore gas fields in the North Sea,’ HGK writes in an explanation. ‘On the Rhine in particular, the vessel offers the highly concentrated industry along this river an alternative to pipeline constructions that are currently lacking or will only be realised in the distant future,’ Bauer believes.
In April this, HGK already launched a design for a large gas tanker for inland waterways. This Pioneer (135 x 17.50 metres, 6000 cubic metres) and the now presented Vanguard will both have their own role. The tonnage and draft of the Vanguard is not yet known. ‘The volume of the basic design exceeds the volume of conventional LPG vessels in the sea-river segment,’ is all HGK spokesman Cristian Lorenz will say. The maximum draught is also not yet known. What is known is that construction will take into account predicted periods of low water on the Rhine.

WAPS

HGK wants to put down a progressive design. The ‘poles’ on the foredeck show that too: the ship saves fuel by letting the wind lend a hand. ‘To make transport as sustainable and resource-saving as possible, a Wind Assisted Propulsion System (WAPS), a type of sail, supports the diesel-electric “Future Fuel Ready” propulsion,’ HGK said.
What is perhaps equally prescient is that the former Cologne-based state-owned company wants to share its ideas with others in the industry. HGK sees the importance of cooperating with competitors to come up with a new concept that benefits everyone. ‘Together we are strong,’ is the idea.
The company has yet to answer many questions, by the way. From the handsome artist’s impression HGK has commissioned, it looks like the ship could be launched right away. But it is more of a train of thought for now.

Read this article by Bart Oosterveld at source: Weekblad Schuttevaer (Dutch, for subscribers only).
Image: HGK Shipping.

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