RELATED BOOK: SOUL OF THE SEA: In the Age of the Algorithm\u00a0by Nishan Degnarain\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Made from electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from renewable energy, green hydrogen is emissions-free.<\/p>\n
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Oil major Royal Dutch Shell last month reiterated its commitment to hydrogen, which it saw as \u201cadvantaged over other potential zero-emissions fuels for shipping\u201d.<\/p>\n
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While hydrogen\u2019s green credentials make it attractive to industrial users, including ship owners and oil majors, it is far less dense than other fuels, meaning more onboard fuel storage capacity is needed. That makes it more feasible, for now, for use in vessels on short voyages.<\/p>\n
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Swiss-headquartered technology group ABB is working on hydrogen fuel cell systems, including for passenger and cargo ships. One of its projects involves developing a fuel cell-based power and propulsion system for a new-build river vessel along France\u2019s Rhone river.<\/p>\n
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\u201cABB sees short-distance shipping as the first adopters of the fuel cell technology,\u201d said Juha Koskela, division president, ABB Marine & Ports.<\/p>\n
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Green hydrogen fuel costs around 4-8 times the price of very low sulfur fuel oil, estimates by risk management firm DNV GL find.<\/p>\n
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Other types of hydrogen are cheaper, but that is because they are produced using fossil fuel, which means they are not emissions free.<\/p>\n
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Green hydrogen is expected to fall in price over the next couple of decades as the cost of renewable energy and electrolyzers falls.<\/p>\n
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For companies to invest en masse, however, the associated infrastructure for refueling and transportation, including electrolyzers, compressors, storage, tanks, and pipelines, must also be in place.<\/p>\n
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Christos Chryssakis, of DNV GL, said it took around 20 years to establish liquefied natural gas refueling infrastructure. He said the process could be quicker for hydrogen, but industry estimates find many billions in investment would be needed.<\/p>\n
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In Norway, regulations could accelerate the process.<\/p>\n
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Cruise ships and ferries sailing through the country\u2019s heritage-protected fjords must be emissions-free by 2026, which is prompting shipping companies to consider fuel combinations including hydrogen.<\/p>\n
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Norwegian-headquartered ship designer and ship yard Ulstein is working on building a support ship for the offshore oil sector that would use hydrogen as one power option.<\/p>\n
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\u201cRather than wait for hydrogen bunker infrastructure to be matured, we went for a hybrid design using a containerized solution for the hydrogen storage tanks,\u201d Ulstein\u2019s Nick Wessels said.<\/p>\n
gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jonathan Saul and Nina Chestney\u00a0(Reuters) \u2013 Developers across the world are for the first time testing the use of hydrogen to power ships as the maritime industry races to find technologies to cut emissions and confidence grows the fuel is safe to use commercially. To reach goals for the shipping industry set by the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1582,9267,924,1348,5893,62],"class_list":["post-20514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-emissions","tag-explores","tag-hydrogen","tag-net","tag-route","tag-shipping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/20515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}