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Chicken and egg?
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
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 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.”
8 Hydrogen hub
plans are springing up around the world – Australia, Denmark, Estonia, The Netherlands, UK, USA…the list goes on
The Port of Tallinn would at least have a ‘starter’ market, as the port’s subsidiaries include a ferry service and ice breaker. “So we are shipowners as well,” says Pirksaar.
The Port of Tallinn Group generates 97,426 tonnes of GHG emissions a year and the main emitter is ships visiting the harbour, at 53 per cent, says Hele-Mai Metsal, Head of the Port of Tallinn’s development department.
“We are the first company in Estonia to have a hydrogen strategy, which we launched in 2021,” she says. “Hydrogen will help the Port of Tallinn to create new value chains and economic opportunities – and in doing so, reach carbon neutrality. This is a very risky business – there is no market yet, no production yet, but there is a very ambitious goal to have climate neutral operations. In order to be a first mover, you have to take a risk – and you need support for that.”
The port is seeking co-funding for its proposals, based on its hydrogen strategy being beneficial to the whole country. Potential use cases for hydrogen produced include not only transport and export, but also industry, energy storage, filling stations for road vehicles, and heating for buildings, says Pirksaar. Another challenge is providing onshore power for as many as four cruise ships at a time in the old city harbour, where there is little room and land is expensive.
One solution could be doing away with onshore power supply for ships and providing power from a barge – at first electricity from hydrogen, and then perhaps hydrogen.
These are all ideas, he emphasises, but time is running short – with the danger that new vessels will be ordered with new fuels, while ports don’t have suitable bunkering.
“All the sectors must move in parallel, otherwise they can’t support each other.”
CHALLENGES AND RISK
Tallinn sees itself as ideal for a hydrogen hub in an east-west ‘green fuel’ shipping corridor through the Baltic Sea. “Ships using hydrogen have to bunker more often and you have to be sure that on a route there are sufficient places to bunker,” says Metsal.
In all of this, Pirksaar and Metsal do not gloss over the challenges. “The big one is legislation and regulation and the need for an overall risk assessment. Another issue is communication, to the authorities and to the public.”
Having petrol stations in a city centre is considered normal, even though there could be an explosion, she points out. “The NIMBY syndrome needs to be addressed quickly. With LNG it took five years – but now we don’t have that time.”
What’s clear is that subsidies will be needed to lower the capex cost. “We can’t do that with our own finances. Hydrogen is expensive and is not as good an energy carrier as electricity itself. The technology is new. It is much more expensive compared to fossil fuels. These things are all risks.”
Ultimately, if production and consumption levels rise, then prices will decrease, Pirksaar points out. “But if you want subsidies, you have to be a first mover.”
Tallinn is in discussion with ports including Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Hamburg, which have the same strategy to become a node, says Metsal.
Meanwhile it is partnering with Tallinn Technical University on the development of an autonomous harbour/service boat to run on either hydrogen or electricity, and it is applying for co-funding for its overall hydrogen plans. “Within the next year, we have to make decisions.”
Other notable projects in progress include:
8 Freeport East – UK, partnering Plans have been drawn up for a Green Hydrogen Hub as part of the UK’s Freeport East development. The hub would pull in energy generated by offshore wind as well as the present and planned new nuclear power stations at Sizewell on the Suffolk coast.
Freeport East is partnering with Ryse-Hydrogen and EDF to find ways of powering port equipment at Felixstowe and Harwich with the green hydrogen supply, and then to use hydrogen across port freight operations including road, rail and vessel movements.
It is suggested that at its peak by 2030, 1GW of hydrogen could be produced, which would achieve 20 per cent of the UK government’s total target.
8 Rotterdam: international approach The Port of Rotterdam recently issued a document looking at the importance of hydrogen in the port of the future. It is expected that from 2050 there will be 20 million tonnes of hydrogen produced in and transported via the port to northwest Europe, says Edwin van Espen, International Port Development Manager, Port of Rotterdam.
The use of hydrogen is expected to grow rapidly in the 2030s and 40s and it will become more and more commercially attractive, he says. “Several countries are taking steps to realise its long-term market potential. Development of import and export flows may already be a game-changer in this decade.”
However, a lot of research and pilot projects still have to be executed, involving private companies, public organisations and knowledge institutes, before hydrogen is a mature business, says Espen. “By using an international approach, it will be possible to share knowledge and experience which will speed up the necessary developments.”
8 Orkney – pioneering approach Orkney has been a leader in deploying hydrogen technology. In the ‘Surf N Turf’ project, an electrolyser on Kirkwall Pier converts hydrogen produced from wind/tide back into electricity, to provide shore power to internal ferries while they are berthed overnight. In the Big Hit project, hydrogen produced on the outer islands is brought to Kirkwall Harbour to supply a hydrogen vehicle refuelling station.
8 Thyssenkrupp
