Gen2 Energy sets out to build world’s biggest hydrogen container carriers

The two envisioned carriers will also be powered by hydrogen on voyages in northern Europe.

PHOTO: Concept design for the two 500 container-capacity hydrogen carriers. Gen2 Energy

Norwegian green hydrogen supply chain developer Gen2 Energy has commissioned ship designer Sirius Design & Integration to design two hydrogen carriers.

The vessels will have capacity to carry 500 40-foot containers, which it claims is a world-first for shipment of hydrogen. Their propulsion systems will also be fuelled by hydrogen and designed for low emissions, the firms say.

Gen2 is building a hub in northern Norway’s Mosjoen to scale up green hydrogen production for bunkering and industrial consumption. Some of these volumes will be exported to other northern European countries and this is where the hydrogen carriers come in.

Ships with a large number of hydrogen-compressing containers are needed to export hydrogen from Mosjoen in large volumes, Gen2 says. But no hydrogen carriers exist with capacity to ship more than 100 containers.

Hydrogen has been touted as a fuel for the future with powers to decarbonise even hard-to-abate sectors like shipping. But to store and transport hydrogen in commercial quantities, cryogenic temperatures of -253°C are required to convert it into a liquid, more compressed state.

High costs to overcome technical barriers associated with cooling, transport and storage logistics for hydrogen are in some way similar to what LNG shipping was up against before it took off.

More and more projects have been launched and announced to take hydrogen shipping from the drawing board to reality.

The Suiso Frontier became the world’s first vessel to carry a liquified hydrogen cargo in February this year, when it completed a 9,000 km voyage between Australia and Japan. The tanker has a 1,250 cbm-capacity tank that is insulated with vacuum pressure to keep its cargo at cryogenic temperatures. It was loaded with 75 mt of hydrogen on its maiden voyage.

The landmark voyage proved it is possible to ship hydrogen in a liquid state at -253°C over large distances. The hydrogen was compressed to 1/800 of its gas-state volume.

Itsbuilder, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, said the Suiso Frontier is the first of many hydrogen carriers it intends to build.