Establishes supply chain for hydrogen production, transportation and storage
Kawasaki Heavy Industries is one of the main players in a consortium now establishing an international liquefied hydrogen supply chain supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) . The consortium is led by HySTRA and is responding to Basic Hydrogen Strategy and Strategic Roadmap for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells which ask for mass production of hydrogen from low cost sources.
From HySTRA`s hydrogen terminal at Kobe Airport Island in Kobe. The hydrogen storage tank in upper right corner. From left Petter Nekså, Sintef, Seiki Hashimoto + Sayaka Yagi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Hiroko Tominaga, Innovation Norway and Trond Strømgren, Ocean Hyway Cluster
Production of hydrogen will take place in Latrobe Valley in south part of Australia where there are abundant resources of brown coal. Brown coal is too moist, spontaneously ignitable and low in energy value to make it economically viable to transport overseas. Hydrogen will be made by drying, pulverizing and burning brown coal in a special process producing syngas, then refining the syngas to hydrogen. The plans include carbon capture and storage (CCS) near the production site in the future commercial phase.
At the pilot stage the hydrogen will be transported in compressed form by truck the 75 kilometres to Hastings Port facilities. At the port the hydrogen will be liquefied and loaded onto a carrier. Pilot phase shipping is to be done by Kawasaki Heavy Industries newly built ship SUISO FRONTIER. The ship was launched 11 December 2019. A 1250 m3 highly thermal insulated tank will be installed during March this year. The tank is constructed to keep 75 tons of hydrogen at minus 253 degrees Celsius for three weeks without use of external cooling. Within 2030 Kawasaki Heavy Industries aim to have 2 large liquid hydrogen carriers in operation, each with a tank capacity of 160 000 m3.
SUISO FRONTIER is 116 metres long, will have a crew of 25 persons and sail at 13 knots. The ship is planned to have her maiden voyage with liquefied hydrogen from Australia to Japan early 2021. The sailing distance is 9000 km and will take approximately 16 days.
SUSIO FRONTIER: the world`s first liquid hydrogen carrier, was launced in Kobe 11 December 2019.
Photo: Kawasaki Heavy Industries
Principal structure for hydrogen receiving terminal at Kobe Airport Island in Kobe. Copyright HySTRA
The receiving hydrogen terminal at Kobe Airport Island in Kobe is now under construction. The terminal consists schematic of a 6-inch loading arm system, a 2500 m3 spherical vacuum pearlite thermal insulated storage tank, a 2.2 Mpa boil off gas tank and a vaporizer. Kawasaki Heavy Industries has more than 30 years of experience with production and operating tanks for liquid hydrogen storage.
Trond Strømgren from Ocean Hyway Cluster visited the terminal site this week as part of a study tour organized by Innovation Norway Tokyo and Norwegian Research Council. – I am very impressed by the work HySTRA and Kawasaki Heavy Industries have done so far, says Strømgren. – Their efforts are world leading and represents the start of large-scale transportation and storage of hydrogen. We wish Kawasaki Heavy Industries all the best for the project, Strømgren ends.
Dr. Eng. Motohiko Nishimura is Vice Executive Officer and General Manager for Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ Hydrogen Project Develop Centre. Analyses of the future is part of his work. – Hydrogen will play an important role in the future energy system and long-distance transportation will be necessary. There will probably be a demand for liquid hydrogen carriers like the current LNG carriers transporting hydrogen from production site to end users around the world today, says Dr. Nishimura.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries will be invited to make a presentation at the International Norwegian Maritime Hydrogen and Marine Energy conference 14-15 October this year.
Contact Information:
Trond Strømgren
Senior Advisor Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Value Chain
+47 402 98 729
trond@hubforocean.no