HYDROGEN OPPORTUNITIES
HYDROGEN: CHICKEN AND EGG? Hydrogen for core maritime and wider business functions presents ports with opportunities but there is risk. Felicity Landon reviews sector initiatives
8 Hydrogen hub plans are springing up around the world – Australia, Denmark, Estonia, The Netherlands, UK, USA…the list goes on
When shipowners invested in mega ships, the ports serving them had no alternative but to invest in the mega cranes required to handle them. If shipowners plump for hydrogen as their future fuel, they will expect ports to be able to provide the bunkering. But with uncertainty about exactly what choices the maritime sector will make in the drive for decarbonisation, is this something of a chicken and egg situation? Numerous studies and projects are out there, discussing how and where hydrogen could be required and provided. This is not just a case of sizing up. Hydrogen can be ‘breathtakingly difficult to store in large quantities’, notes one expert. It could be stored onshore under pressure and suitable in this form for domestic (or short distance) shipping. However, the challenges are far greater for international shipping. Large amounts of fuel would be required and if it is not to reduce the ship’s cargo capacity, it would need to be stored onboard in a smaller volume, i.e. as liquid, close to zero, over long distances. Quite apart from the safety issues (real or perceived) of landside storage, what would be the implications of a huge container ship, carrying many thousands of tonnes of hydrogen, coming alongside, especially in ports located in big cities? All of this might seem to imply that hydrogen is still something of the ‘future’. However, the Antwerp-based maritime and logistics group Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) has been pushing ahead with innovations around hydrogen as a fuel, some of which were showcased during COP 26, at Maritime UK’s International Maritime Hub. CMB acquired the UK-based Windcat Workboats in 2020 and is preparing to launch the Hydrocat, the world’s first hydrogen-powered crew transfer vessel, serving the offshore wind sector. Last year, it launched a hydrogen refuelling station, a dual-fuel truck, a dual-fuel excavator and Asia’s first
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hydrogen ferry (the HydroBingo). It has also set up JPN H2HYDRO, a joint venture with Tsuneishi (with which it developed the HydroBingo) and created partnerships to produce hydrogen on a large scale in Japan. This year will see the launch of the Hydrotug – the world’s first hydrogen-powered tug, it will operate in the Port of Antwerp. Alexander Saverys, CEO, CMB, points out that in the shipping industry, late followers have usually outperformed early pioneers. “We do, however, believe that this time it can be different. The sheer magnitude of the challenge ahead will necessitate quick and agile action. Having gone through the development phase of our technology in the past six years, we are ready to scale up and bring our solutions to the market today, whereas some of our competitors are still stuck in feasibility analyses and prototyping.” INVESTMENT BUT UNCERTAINTIES In Estonia, the Port of Tallinn has set out its proposals to build a 25,000m3 hydrogen storage facility at Paldiski South Harbour, for the import and export of hydrogen in the Baltic Sea region. The idea is that the area is suitable for developing offshore wind farms and these could provide the electricity to produce green hydrogen, to fuel ships. As well as building the storage, the port would install the required infrastructure for handling exports and imports of hydrogen, possibly through the Muuga cargo port. Raimo Pirksaar, the port’s chief specialist of energy management, says: “Hydrogen is not a new thing but it is very new in the field of transport and production. On a large-scale, it means a lot of investment has to be done – and yet there is no market right now.” The situation was similar with LNG, he points out: “We all learned the hard way that it doesn’t always work out, so everyone is very cautious about new fuels.”
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