South Korean Shipbuilders Bet Big on Green Fuels

by Seo Jin-woo and Han Yubin (Pulse) South Korea’s big three shipyards are accelerating their efforts to build green ships using eco-friendly fuels amid the migration to carbon neutrality worldwide.

According to the shipbuilding industry on Tuesday, the profitability of eco-friendly vessels under construction is up to 1.5 times higher than that of their traditional counterparts thanks to green fuels.

HD Hyundai, Korea’s largest shipbuilding group, is leading a new trend of hydrogen fuels after it has recently succeeded in developing the country’s first marine engine that uses a blended fuel of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydrogen with its core technology. It has completed a performance testing for its 1.5-MW HiMSEN engine of LNG/hydrogen dual fuel.

The engine ensures less toxic gas emissions, such as sulfur oxides, carbon dioxide, and particle matter, because it can use diesel or LNG/hydrogen dual fuel selectively. The industry expects this will open the era of hydrogen engine-powered ships.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has recently completed the safety evaluation of a facility that will be used to develop a very large crude carrier running on ammonia (NH3) propulsion. The shipbuilder is committed to developing greener ships with its three energy-saving technologies that allows reuse of energy generated by an engine‘s rotational power, a new Air Lubrication system and a rotor sail system.

Especially, its rotor sail system uses the force of wind and column rotation to generate power.

Samsung Heavy Industries Co. has recently obtained Approval in Principle, from the international classification society Korean Register (KR), for a new ammonia propulsion carrier. READ MORE

Excerpt from HD Hyundai/PR Newswire: Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) signs an MOU with Fraunhofer IKTS of Germany and fuel cell component manufacturer Elcogen, based in Estonia and Finland; MOU lays out a plan to develop a prototype of large-capacity solid oxide fuel cell systems; KSOE aims to acquire fuel cell manufacturing capabilities and water electrolysis technology to establish a hydrogen value chain

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), the intermediate holding company of HD Hyundai, will embark on a mission to develop fuel cell systems for ships and power generation and acquire technologies for green hydrogen production, in collaboration with Europe's largest research institute and a fuel cell stack manufacturer. KSOE announced on January 9 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Fraunhofer IKTS, a subsidiary of Germany's Fraunhofer, and the Finnish subsidiary of Elcogen of Estonia to develop solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and water electrolysis systems. The MOU was signed at the recently-held CES 2023 in Las Vegas.

"HD Hyundai aims to establish a hydrogen value chain that encompasses the production, transport, storage, and use of eco-friendly hydrogen," said Sungjoon Kim, Senior Executive Vice President and head of KSOE's Advanced Research Center. "The MOU will allow us to acquire key technologies in the fields of green hydrogen production and fuel cell system manufacturing."

Fraunhofer IKTS is the largest applied research institute in Europe with 72 labs across Germany. It conducts research into high-performance ceramics and boasts world-class technological prowess in SOFC and water electrolysis. Established in 2001, Elcogen is a global leader in efficient, affordable solid oxide technology supplying solid oxide cells and stacks, which are the key parts of SOFC systems.

Under the agreement, KSOE will work with Fraunhofer IKTS and Elcogen to begin designing and prototype testing for large-capacity SOFC systems that are used in ships and power generation. KSOE and Fraunhofer IKTS have been collaborating since February 2022 for the basic design of SOFC systems.

SOFC produce electrical energy by inducing a chemical reaction between oxygen and a variety of fuels such as hydrogen, natural gas, ammonia, methanol, and biofuel. They are suitable for ship engines and cogeneration as they are highly energy-efficient and they can use waste heat generated from high-temperature operation (600~1000℃). SOFCs are considered the most advanced among all fuel cells developed to date.

In addition, KSOE plans to leverage Fraunhofer IKTS's water electrolysis technologies and Elcogen's capacity to produce the key components of fuel cells, in order to acquire technologies for producing eco-friendly hydrogen.

KSOE formed a consortium with the world-renowned energy company Shell and Doosan Fuel Cell in October last year to validate fuel cells for ships, and a test bed for the validation is currently under operation.

About HD Hyundai
HD Hyundai is the world's largest shipbuilding and heavy industries conglomerate. HD Hyundai started as a shipbuilder in 1972 in a small fishing village in Ulsan, the southeast of South Korea. On the foundation of solid leadership in the shipbuilding industry, it is now progressing to become the most innovative solution provider in the heavy industry and energy sectors, ranging from shipbuilding, offshore engineering and construction equipment to the refinery, petrochemical, and smart energy management businesses. Marking its 50th anniversary, the group was renamed to HD Hyundai to change the paradigm of traditional shipbuilding industry and emphasize its presence in other industries. READ MORE