Captain: World’s First Liquefied Hydrogen Tanker Departs Japan
$360 million pilot project will carry 1,250 cubic meters of liquified hydrogen from Australia to Japan, requiring 16 days transit each way
The world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier, the M/V Suiso Frontier, left Japan on December 24, 2021 to pick up its first cargo in Australia, with a return to Japan expected around late February, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd said. According to prior news reports the ship will carry 1,250 cubic meters of liquified hydrogen cooled to -253°C. At that temperature, hydrogen shrinks to just 1/800 of its original gas-state.
Since 2016, Kawasaki has been part of a consortium comprising Iwatani Corporation (Iwatani), Shell Japan Limited, and Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. (J-POWER) to form the CO2-free Hydrogen Energy Supply-chain Technology Research Association (HySTRA) with the goal of building an energy supply chain enabling economical and reliable sourcing of hydrogen in large volumes.
The A$500 million ($362 million) pilot project, led by Japan’s Kawasaki and backed by the Japanese and Australian governments, was originally scheduled to ship its first cargo of hydrogen extracted from brown coal in Australia in the spring, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A one-way trip takes about 16 days.
Kawasaki Heavy aims to replicate its success as a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker producer with hydrogen. Partners on the Australian side of the project, which will produce hydrogen from brown coal, include Japan’s Electric Power Development Co (J-Power), Iwatani Corp, Marubeni Corp, Sumitomo Corp and Australia’s AGL Energy Ltd, whose mine is supplying the brown coal.
