Japan introduces the world’s first liquid hydrogen transport ship

Last Wednesday, heavy industry firm Kawasaki Heavy Industries introduced the world’s first cargo ship to transport liquid hydrogen, using technology to help greatly expand the capacity to transport this green energy.

The importance of this train has attracted a crowd of more than 4,000 people to the scene of Kawasaki in Kobe to attend the launch ceremony and name Suiso Frontier – the name means Hydro in Japanese. The 116-meter-long ship will be completed in the following fall.

As a gas with a very low liquefaction temperature, up to -253 ^p C, transporting it is difficult, especially on a large scale. To transport them in liquid form, the containers on the Kawasaki ship can compress the gas volume to 1/800 of the original volume.

The vessel will transport liquid hydrogen produced from cheap coal in Australia and ship to Japan, with test shipments starting before March 2021.

Thanks to the ability to transport liquid hydrogen gas in large quantities, Kawasaki’s ship can be considered as a card to change the game on the market of clean energy with the potential to leapfrog in the coming years. According to estimates by market research firm Fuji Keizai, global demand for hydrogen will increase more than 50 times to about $ 3.75 billion by 2030.

This high demand is due to the characteristic of not emitting CO ₂ when burning, so Hydrogen will be a promising source of fuel for reducing carbon emissions. Tensions in the Middle East are also fueling the need to find new alternative energy sources.

Japanese trading companies, including Marubeni and Electric Power Development, a domestic trading company also known as J-Power have partnered with Kawasaki for this project. In addition, this project also has the participation of a large Dutch energy company, Royal Dutch Shell.

In Japan, JXTG Holdings is Japan’s largest fuel wholesaler, producing hydrogen from liquefied petroleum gas in Yokohama. The company supplies fuel to 41 Hydro stations across the country.

One obstacle that makes Hydro less popular is the cost. Electricity generation using liquefied gas and coal is still significantly cheaper. In order for hydrogen to be competitive on the price of liquefied gas, building a global supply chain and the ability to ship large quantities must be done. Ships like Kawasaki’s will be the start of that. The airline plans to commercialize the ship by 2030 and will develop larger ships.

References Nikkei