First Wave of Ships Explore Green Hydrogen as Route to Net Zero

by Jonathan Saul, Nina Chestney (Reuters) Developers across the world are for the first time testing the use of hydrogen to power ships as the maritime industry races to find technologies to cut emissions and confidence grows the fuel is safe to use commercially.

Oil major Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L last month reiterated its commitment to hydrogen, which it saw as "advantaged over other potential zero-emissions fuels for shipping".

While hydrogen’s green credentials make it attractive to industrial users, including ship owners and oil majors, it is far less dense than other fuels, meaning more onboard fuel storage capacity is needed. That makes it more feasible, for now, for use in vessels on short voyages.

Swiss-headquartered technology group ABB is working on hydrogen fuel cell systems, including for passenger and cargo ships.

“ABB sees short-distance shipping as the first adopters of the fuel cell technology,” said Juha Koskela, division president, ABB Marine & Ports.

Green hydrogen fuel costs around 4-8 times the price of very low sulphur fuel oil, estimates by risk management firm DNV GL find.

Christos Chryssakis, of DNV GL, said it took around 20 years to establish liquefied natural gas refuelling infrastructure. He said the process could be quicker for hydrogen, but industry estimates find many billions in investment would be needed.

“Rather than wait for hydrogen bunker infrastructure to be matured, we went for a hybrid design using a containerised solution for the hydrogen storage tanks,” Ulstein’s Nick Wessels said.

Belgium’s Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) built its first hydrogen-powered passenger shuttle boat, which hit the waters in 2017 in Belgium. It will provide a hydrogen ferry for Japan by April next year - the first hydrogen ferry in Asia - and is involved in a tug boat project with the port of Antwerp, CMB’s chief executive Alexander Saverys said.

A study by the non-profit Global Maritime Forum (GMF), which mapped out 66 projects looking at zero emissions in shipping, showed 19 of the 21 initiatives relating to fuel production used hydrogen in some form.

The majority of these anticipated using hydrogen to make other products, such as ammonia, methanol or ethanol, to improve the schemes’ viability. Seven are pure hydrogen projects.

Some in the shipping industry remain unconvinced hydrogen is safe as a power source for larger vessels carrying large amounts of fuel onboard. READ MORE