RH2INE conference in Duisburg, 30 September 2024. From the leſt, Arno Treur (NPRC), Robert Graf-Potthoff (Rhenus), Stephan Heuvelman, the next generation of family business HTS Group during an interview.
Photo RH2INE
Companies at the helm: frontrunners in inland navigation
They are the heroes within the RH2INE project: the ship owners who are having a new cargo ship built with hydrogen-electric propulsion, which has never been applied before. Apart from the technical challenges that require a lot of patience, they face questions such as: how to deal with as- yet nonexistent regulations for the technology; how to finance the capital- intensive investment; how to organise a sustainable revenue model; and last but not least, how to get parts and installations delivered on time in times of disrupted supply chains.
Whether the efforts will succeed is uncertain. The three frontrunners speaking here, NPRC, HTS Group and Rhenus PartnerShip are very well aware that they are dealing with the known unknown. They go forward because, as their representatives illustrate here, inland shipping needs to decarbonise soon.
Arno Treur, CFO of NPRC
“If as a sector we want to go emission-free with hydrogen, it has to be done collectively”, argues Arno Treur, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the inland shipping cooperative NPRC. His organisation decided to oversee the construction of the hydrogen electric freighter Antonie around 2020.
Co-operative member Harm Lenten needed of a new ship and the shipper, chemical company Nobian, for which NPRC organises salt transport from the Delfzijl plant to Botlek, proved a willing partner. The trio asked the technical partners required for the project and the government for indispensable financial support. “The Antonie was already underway before the RH₂INE project really started. We acquired the necessary knowledge by ourselves”, says Treur. “Now the new dry bulk vessel Antonie falls under the RH₂INE umbrella and serves as a kind of showpiece.”
Motor ship Antonie entered service in 2023. It has a hybrid propulsion system with a diesel generator in addition to the
6 • RH2INE
emission-free electric hydrogen fuel cell-battery system. “The ship must always be able to sail, otherwise your business plan won’t work. So the backup plan with the generator is part of the concept.” He knows that other frontrunners in the Netherlands take a different approach. But for NPRC, it is important to remain as flexible as possible. The subsequent projects on NPRC’s drawing board will also be hybrid.
It turned out to be a good choice, because even after the Antonie was launched, it took some time before the special hydrogen tankcontainers could be delivered. Owner Lenten was thus able to sail and earn money, before the electric emission-free system is fully installed.
For Treur, the RH₂INE project is a platform to provide input and gain knowledge. NPRC shares its valuable experiences, but the mistakes made as well. “You are with many parties in the project, who are all pioneering. Some things always go wrong. We should have had a stricter coordination earlier in the process. That would have saved time.” According to Treur, the networking platform RH₂INE enables the establishment of standards and agreements that lead to leaner processes.
Expensive H2 Cruising on hydrogen (H2) is more expensive compared to all other options, such as diesel, HVO and biofuels. Shippers will therefore have to pay an acceptable additional price for it. “We’re not doing
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