HNordic
Projects
These are not desktop studies. Every project on this page was delivered by people who have operated the infrastructure they were building -- who know what works under load, what fails under pressure, and what the crew or port operator actually needs from a system day to day.
Maritime energy
A Singapore-based charging company needed 1 MW of reliable ship charging power at a commercial port -- and needed it built for a service life measured in decades, not years. The conventional answer would have been a grid connection and an AC-coupled charger. Instead, we designed a fully integrated DC system: four VAWTs generating 200 kW, a supercapacitor bank rated for over 35,000 charge-discharge cycles, and a 1 MW DC-to-DC charger delivering power to the vessel with no conversion losses between generation and delivery. The supercapacitors are the critical decision. At typical port duty cycles, they translate to a service life well above 30 years -- removing the battery replacement cost that undermines the economics of most storage projects before the decade is out.
A shipping company came to HNordic with a fully electric ferry concept and two numbers that were driving the entire project into difficulty: 85 to 100 MWh of onboard battery capacity, and a shore-side charging requirement of over 30 MW. Both carried enormous consequences for capital cost, grid infrastructure, and long-term economics. We did not optimise those numbers. We questioned whether they needed to exist. By introducing a RoRo-based battery exchange concept -- modules swapped between trips rather than fully recharged at the berth -- the onboard requirement dropped to 25 to 30 MWh. That is a 70 percent reduction, achieved through systems thinking rather than battery chemistry. The shore connection fell from over 30 MW to approximately 5 MW, transforming a major grid infrastructure challenge into a standard installation. The standardised modules can be deployed across sister vessels as the fleet grows, spreading the capital cost across the programme rather than duplicating it with every hull.
Port infrastructure
A disused slipway at an industrial harbour in Sweden was the starting point. The brief was to convert it into a dedicated ship pier capable of handling the daily demands of ro-ro and ferry operations over a long service life. The work began with sheet piling along the perimeter, anchored with fixing rods and backfilled with gravel to bring the pier bed to the required level. The surface was finished with asphalt and topped with a concrete touch plate -- and integrated into that touch plate, railway bars running in the direction of vessel approach. That detail matters. In a port where ferries dock repeatedly throughout the day, wear on both the vessel ramp and the pier surface accumulates fast. The railway bars manage that wear over decades. The completed pier added meaningful operational capacity to the harbour without a single day of disruption to the vessels already using it.
The waterline zone is where marine concrete dies. Tidal movement, wave action, freeze-thaw cycles, and salt exposure attack the concrete at the narrow band where air, water, and structure meet -- and at this industrial port in Sweden, the damage had reached close to 170 pillars. None of them could be removed. The port was live, and full replacement was neither operationally viable nor commercially justifiable. The solution was purpose-made stainless steel cylinders, each fabricated with an integrated locking mechanism to clamp tightly around the existing pillar. The base of each cylinder was sealed, the trapped water pumped out, and the dry void filled with new concrete bonded to the original structure. Stainless steel was the only credible material choice -- in a marine environment where corrosion is the problem being solved, the encasement has to outlast the repair. With close to 170 pillars completed, this stands as one of the more demanding concrete rehabilitation programmes undertaken at a working industrial port.
One of Sweden's most strategically significant ferry links to Poland and central Europe needed more capacity. We managed the design, procurement, and execution of the expansion from open grassland to a fully operational port facility -- 86,000 square metres of hardened area, two warehouse buildings totalling 11,000 square metres, 33,000 square metres of dedicated vehicle staging, and a new double-lane entrance roundabout to handle the increased traffic volumes. The entire hardened area was paved in concrete rather than asphalt -- a deliberate long-term decision. Concrete carries a 60-year service life with no meaningful maintenance; asphalt needs a new wearing course every seven years and accumulates standing water that accelerates its own degradation. The project was delivered through public procurement at $5.67 million against a $5.6 million budget -- a variance of less than 1.3 percent. The port owner said they had never seen a project of this scale finish within budget. Cost overruns of at least double had been the norm.
Vessel construction management
As part of a four-person management team, HNordic's project manager carried full construction and completion responsibility for two advanced offshore service vessels built for North Sea operations -- USD 63 million across both hulls. These were not standard builds. Both vessels were developed around an innovative hull incorporating a new-generation bulb bow for reduced resistance and improved seakeeping in mixed sea states. The propulsion system was diesel-electric throughout: four Bergen C25:33 L6 engines producing 6,620 kW combined, paired with ABB generators and Ulstein Aquamaster azimuth thrusters, with Kamewa Ulstein thrusters for precision manoeuvring. Each vessel was DNV classed and certified to DYNPOS AUTR DP2 standard, met NOFOS 2005 oil recovery requirements, and carried standby capacity for 250 survivors. The programme required coordinating a supply chain spanning every system on the vessel -- propulsion, deck equipment, electronics, firefighting, ventilation, refrigeration, piping, electrical, and interior fit-out -- across both builds simultaneously.
Projects are published with the explicit written consent of the relevant client. Operators interested in working with HNordic on future projects are welcome to get in touch.
Whatever the scope -- feasibility, engineering, delivery, or strategic advice -- we are happy to start with a conversation.
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