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I read this sentence in a book
Le taxi s'éleva à la verticale. Gaal regardait par la fenêtre incurvée, en se cramponnant instinctivement à la banquette.
However, I dont understand the specific use on en in the second sentence, it doesn't seem to replace anything. Can somebody please explain it to me?
In French, the construction en + [participe présent] is used to mean while ________ing. It is called le gérondif. This is one use of en; the use you're thinking of is that of en as a pronoun that replaces phrases with de/de la/du. This is not the case here, as you've pointed out.
With this in mind, I (a non-native French speaker) would translate your sentence as
The taxi rose vertically. Gaal watched through the curved window while instinctively holding on to the seat.
