A pioneering effort in efficient hydrogen transport: Kawasaki Heavy Industries powers innovations toward sustainable future

For all the promise of hydrogen energy, its impact still hinges on the ability to cost-effectively move the fuel from point A to point B. That’s where Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ new cargo containment system (CCS) comes in[1]. Equipped with a double-shell structure and advanced thermal insulation, the containment system has the potential to make transporting large quantities of hydrogen more economical. The above rendering image shows the 160,000³ liquefied hydrogen carrier.

Building on the success of the Suiso Frontier,[2] the world’s first ship to transport liquefied hydrogen, Kawasaki’s achievement realizes mass transportation for commercial purposes. It moves hydrogen in exponentially larger storage tanks than on the demonstration vessel – and if such maritime transportation becomes possible, it could realize economical mass distribution and ultimately lower the cost of clean hydrogen.

The technological breakthrough accompanies a digital feat, too: Kawasaki’s ongoing development of the Suiso Platform, which frames up digital management and visualization of the entire supply chain – from production to utilization – to ensure hydrogen traceability. By tackling the digital and physical challenges of hydrogen transportation, Kawasaki previews what a lower-cost, higher-volume distribution channel would look like to meet growing global demand.

Broader implications for the hydrogen economy

Heat penetration forms an inherent challenge when transporting liquified hydrogen. As container sizes decrease, penetration increases, which is less than ideal when you must maintain -253° C temperatures to keep hydrogen in a liquified state. As such, relatively small storage volumes require high thermal performance. Vacuum-insulated membranes help achieve this, but they also increase transportation costs.

Larger containers offer better resistance to heat penetration on a volume basis, lowering the performance and energy requirements for insulation and cooling, respectively. With a CCS that does not require vacuum insulation, Kawasaki’s development signals new potential for liquified hydrogen transportation – one where larger carriers with more cost-effective insulation can create a pathway for economically viable transportation. It paves the way for energy producers to move the zero-emissions fuel closer to where it’s needed.

Technical innovations

As a demonstration vessel deployed for two years, the Suiso Frontier held a 1,250 cubic-meter tank that kept hydrogen in a liquified state with help from a vacuum-sealed membrane layer. To achieve the desired thermal performance from larger volumes, Kawasaki required a specific structural concept to ensure reliability and safety.

Its distinctive new CCS, called the CC61H-type, uses a spherical design to minimize outer surface area relative to volume capacity. As such, the CC61H-type employs a double-shell insulation system, not a vacuum-sealed layer, ensuring gas-replacement and cooldown performance for both the internal and external two-layer system. This ensures safety and reduces operating costs, thus increasing commercial viability.

Kawasaki designed the CC61H-type test tank to suit large, liquified hydrogen carrier vessels. Each ship can be equipped with four tanks of 40,000 cubic meters apiece, for a total cargo capacity of 160,000 cubic meters – 128 times the volume used for the Suiso Frontier’s demonstration test. As part of its extensive validation, Kawasaki tested gas replacement, cooling, and heat-up cycles in the CC61H-type tanks. It also verified structural integrity, including assembly, welding, and insulation workability. Finally, it confirmed that hydrogen could be efficiently replaced inside the large tank using inert gas, with insulation performance achieved as planned.

Alongside the hardware developments, it’s essential to build a digital framework to prove that hydrogen is low carbon. Toward that end, the Suiso Platform supports hydrogen trading with a suite of services. It enables assessments on emissions and carbon intensity, supports certification applications, and offers attribution data for hydrogen traceability, to name a few.

Through the platform, users can manage distribution channels to smooth out the trading process, disclose non-financial information, and receive credentials for low-carbon hydrogen. Such capabilities will eventually ensure that companies can trace the chain of custody through digital management and confidently employ clean hydrogen as a means of decarbonizing their businesses.

Remaining challenges

From an infrastructure perspective, significant cost barriers remain to produce hydrogen from renewables-powered electrolysis instead of conventional hydrocarbons, the source for most of today’s hydrogen. As Kawasaki validates cost-effective transportation for liquified hydrogen, it will continue to produce hydrogen more economically. Alongside this, Kawasaki will develop highly efficient liquefaction equipment and a cogeneration system using hydrogen gas.

Improving viability, driving cost effectiveness

To drive down costs and improve the viability of liquid hydrogen transportation, Kawasaki is designing carriers that meet varying global demands for the substance – all optimized for tank shape, insulation systems, and cargo capacities.

Innovations in hydrogen transportation technology are critical to making new forms of renewable energy more practical, accessible, and economical. In fact, these efforts usher the world closer to a more sustainable future. Only then can society meet the net-zero emissions targets that are so critical to our collective future.

Kawasaki’s goal now is to continue developing large, liquefied hydrogen carriers in demonstration projects that will run through 2030. These projects will support the broader commercialization of a maritime supply chain for liquified hydrogen across borders, designed to help Kawasaki promote hydrogen energy and achieve carbon neutrality, ultimately for a greener planet.

[1] This Hydrogen Council article is based on Kawasaki’s press release issued in June 2023

[2] “Suiso” means hydrogen in Japanese