Shipping of hydrogen by ship will be possible by 2025, says Hyundai Heavy

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) hopes to have the technology to ship hydrogen by ship by 2025, an executive said, aiming to advance the supply of the fuel that some have called a major source of clean energy.

The announcement by KSOE, the shipbuilding arm of Hyundai Heavy, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, comes amid growing global interest in launching hydrogen as a cleaner fuel alternative.

A major challenge is keeping hydrogen refrigerated to minus 253 degrees Celsius — just 20 degrees above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature — so that it remains in liquid form, avoiding the risk of parts of a container cracking.

“We have already developed a concept ship with a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters,” said Yoo Byeong-yong, vice president of KSOE’s Power Systems Research Institute.

While small compared to the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) supertankers, which can carry up to 266,000 cubic meters, hydrogen tankers will grow in size as the technology develops.

Around 20 ships with a capacity of 20,000 cubic meters are expected to be built in the 2030s. If demand grows, it could rise to 200 ships larger than 170,000 cubic meters after 2040, according to South Korean industry projections. one of the shipbuilding powers. KSOE expects the tankers to be sold between 2025 and 2027.

Yoo said that in the early stages, ships carrying hydrogen would be fueled by LNG, but could be powered by hydrogen itself once the hydrogen market matures.

Shipping, which carries around 90% of world trade and accounts for nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions, is under increasing pressure from environmentalists to take more concrete action.