A growing list of Australian hydrogen-export projects, and the perception that Australia is a potential world-leader in hydrogen exports, has led Perth, WA-based Global Energy Ventures to announce plans to develop a new hydrogen-carrying ship design.
Ship concept design
GEV’s H2 Ship will have a storage capacity of up to 2,000 tonnes (23 million m3) of compressed hydrogen. The containment system will include ambient temperature hydrogen at a target pressure of 3,600 psi (or 250 bar). As the technology advances, GEV adds that it intends to include engines that burn pure hydrogen.
Smaller capacity ships will be evaluated by GEV for demonstration purposes based on specific pilot export projects, the company said in a statement.
The company anticipates that detailed engineering designs will be lodged as part of the American Bureau of Shipping Approval in Principle Process in early 2021.
Supply chain
The company comments that the infrastructure for a future hydrogen supply chain shares many similarities to exporting and shipping natural gas. It adds that it has “commenced discussions” with several technical groups to fast-track the screening of viable options for a compressed hydrogen supply chain.
Australia and hydrogen
GEV will focus on Australian export projects, with several projects advancing through pilot phases and now looking to export markets.
“GEV sees Australia as the global leader for establishing a national hydrogen strategy and industry with major funding programs in place. Australia has also established future hydrogen export agreements with regional customers in Japan, Korea, Singapore, and most recently Germany… to be focussed on a new class of vessel to transport hydrogen is now timely given the global push by governments and major corporates to focus on ‘net-zero carbon’ policies, with hydrogen as a pillar for decarbonising heavy carbon emission industries,” the company said.
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Other developments
The Suiso Frontier, the hull world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier was launched in mid-December last year. Unlike the Australian concept, the Suiso Frontier has been designed to carry hydrogen which has been cooled to minus 253 degrees Celsius, at which point it will have condensed to 1/800th of its gas volume and will be a liquid.
The storage tank was installed into the hull on 7 March 2020. According to the builder, Kawasaki, the tank “features a double-shell structure with vacuum insulation between the overlapping inner and outer shell layers. Furthermore, the inner-tank supports are made of glass-fiber-reinforced plastic, which is also used in applications such as helicopter rotor blades and boasts high strength along with properties enabling thermal conduction suppression”.
Following installation of the tank, other works such as piping were to be installed to complete the ship in October this year, although the company does not appear to have made a completion announcement at the point of writing.
Australia-to-Japan mass-hydrogen marine supply chain
Upon completion, the ship will be used for technology demonstration testing with the aim of helping to create an Australia-to-Japan hydrogen supply chain.
Kawasaki joined with a variety of other companies in 2016 with the aim of making hydrogen “just as common a fuel source as petroleum and natural gas”. The group is seeking to build an energy supply chain that will enable the reliable sourcing of hydrogen in large volumes.
A brown coal gasification facility is being constructed in Australia and a liquefied hydrogen unloading terminal is being built in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture as part of demonstration of a mass-hydrogen marine transportation supply chain.
