Officials from Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) said yesterday a landmark pilot project to ship liquefied hydrogen from Australia had proven that the new seaborne trade is technically feasible.
Earlier this year, the KHI-built Suiso Frontier (pictured), the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier, took a cargo of hydrogen created from brown coal in Australia to Japan, arriving in Kobe late last month.
“The demonstration covered from production and transport to loading and storage proved that the technological foundations have been laid for the future use of hydrogen as an energy source in the same way as liquefied natural gas,” Motohiko Nishimura, KHI’s executive officer, told reporters.
“Equipment and facilities that can be operated safely is also a game-changing technology for the clean energy business,” Nishimura said.
KHI said it aims to build a much larger hydrogen vessel soon.