HGK Shipping has designed a new kind of river-going coastal vessel in or-
der 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. The extremely
modern ship designed by HGK Shipping will not, however, just travel along rivers, but the
“Vanguard” can also operate in European coastal waters and beyond. As there is no need to
tranship the cargo between different modes of transport, this transport solution creates huge
value added. This both applies to planned transport operations to supply hydrogen from
Spain and Portugal, for example, but also to transport the CO2 that is expelled at the desig-
nated offshore fields, which are often located in the North Sea.

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 “future-
fuel-ready” drive system. The enormous experience gained from other HGK Shipping de-
signs for optimising operations in shallow waters has also been integrated in the “Vanguard”
concept.

Shipping CEO Bauer comments, “Increasing decarbonisation is changing flows of
goods”
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 produc-
tion processes is changing flows of goods. This is then opening up opportunities for our sec-
tor 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 Pen-
insula 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. HGK Shipping is therefore repeatedly setting new standards in ship design for
inland waterway shipping from a logistical point of view in order to help support the “Europe-
an Green Deal” with its planned switch of production processes, which includes using “green”
ammonia.

“The newly designed river-seagoing gas tanker and the concept for other successors to
‘Vanguard’, which will be planned in line with customers’ requirements, fully exploit the tech-
nical possibilities for a smooth crossover from coastal waters and the inland waterway sys-
tem further inland in the best possible way,” says Wolfgang Nowak, the Managing Director of
the HGK Shipping subsidiary, Amadeus, which is responsible for this business. “First of all,
preventing any stop at the seaports reduces the risks associated with transhipment and,
secondly, it offers our customers savings potential in terms of time and costs.” Amadeus has
been using the benefits of coastal vessels in the HGK Shipping cosmos for this purpose for a
quarter of a century.

Support for industry when removing residual carbon dioxide
The “Pioneer“ project, which was announced in April 2024, and now the “Vanguard” project
complement each other according to the plans to use them on the different waterways and
each enable large transport volumes. The underlying ship concepts support industry when
removing residual carbon dioxide, which is emitted and collected in liquid form as LCO2 from
the different production processes. With the help of the “Carbon Capture and Storage“ (CCS)
and the “Carbon Capture and Utilization” (CCU) procedures, it is possible to prevent CO2
emissions or make further use of them in chemical processes. The second important field of
use for these newly developed gas tankers is to deliver the hydrogen derivate ammonia for
further processing, so-called cracking of NH3, in order to supply the markets with sustainable,
green energy.