LH2CRAFT project
Developing safe and efficient marine transportation of liquid hydrogen for a sustainable future
| Business | Period | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marine | June 2023 - May 2027 | Hydrus Engineering S.A. |
Horizon Europe |
Challenge
The European Climate Law writes into law the goal set out in the European Green Deal aiming for climate-neutrality by 2050 through the introduction of more sustainable, affordable, accessible, healthier, and cleaner alternatives. The ‘Fit for 55’ package sets an intermediate target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. All sectors must contribute to the EU’s increased climate ambition, and both industry and governments have shown interest in decarbonization projects to achieve this goal.
Hydrogen is a promising fuel at the center of these decarbonisation efforts. However, for the development of a hydrogen-based economy, a fundamental challenge is its storage and transportation. H2 has the highest energy per mass of any fuel, but its low ambient temperature density results in a low energy per unit volume. This requires the development of advanced storage methods that will allow H2 storage and transportation over longer distances. The most efficient way to transport hydrogen is in liquid form. For this reason, the LH2CRAFT (Safe and Efficient Marine Transportation of Liquid Hydrogen) project aims to develop a next generation sustainable, commercially attractive, and safe technology for long-term storage and long-distance transportation of liquid hydrogen on ships. This will be achieved by developing new design solutions for storage at a temperature of 20°K and demonstrating it on a 180m3 containment system.
The LH2CRAFT project will help Europe pursuing two parallel societal objectives:
- meeting society’s needs and maintaining EU’s strong global maritime leadership, with major impacts on EU´s innovation-driven industry providing highly skilled jobs
- developing efficient technological solutions and international regulatory standards.
Approach
RINA will lead the outlining of the technological and economic boundaries of cryogenic containment technologies, setting the basis for desktop studies on alternative storage systems and selection of the concept design of the containment system to be investigated.
We will also contribute to the definition of the final specification of the requirements for the selected cryogenic containment solution(s) to be advanced to basic and detailed design, along with the definition of the evaluation criteria to get the Approval in Principle and general approval.
Furthermore, we will be involved in the risk assessment focusing on the safety of the prototype and will lead the preliminary risk assessment of its conceptual design. This will be significant for the risk mitigation and verification of the detailed design. In general, we will overview and contribute to all the engineering design, manufacturing, and testing activities needed for regulatory compliance, both for the prototype and the auxiliary systems.
We will contribute to the Approval in Principle and general approval of the liquid hydrogen containment system. Since a framework for the safe transportation and use of hydrogen on-board ships is missing, classification societies must develop an approach to comprehensively evaluate liquid hydrogen storage for long voyages. Therefore, we will also play a significant role in identifying and removing possible regulatory barriers, updating existing class technical rules, and developing new provisions such as rules, guidelines, best practices). These could be further proposed to IMO to support the development of pertinent international statutory regulations.
Conclusion
The main goal of LH2CRAFT is to design and test new storage solutions and technologies for the transport of liquid hydrogen as cargo on long sea voyages, allowing the development of an entirely new opportunities and routes for hydrogen trading. Various shipping stakeholders, such as regulatory bodies, storage containment manufacturers, shipowners, shipyards, and ship operators, will benefit from the project outcome. This will facilitate the development of a whole new market and economy based upon hydrogen for energy generation, completely carbon free and with zero harmful emissions.
The core technologies and the technology enablers developed in LH2CRAFT are expected to be commercialized worldwide. The experience gained in LH2CRAFT will be the basis for a further development and harmonization of class guidelines for the safe and sustainable transport of large quantities of liquid hydrogen as cargo on board.
The project partners will also investigate how to link the technologies and the regulations applicable for the waterborne transportation of hydrogen as cargo and its use as fuel on board, in navigation and in port. The safe, efficient and sustainable transport of large quantities hydrogen at sea is a critical factor enabling global climate neutrality and transport of zero-emission fuels. The project actively contributes to reducing the environmental footprint of the maritime transport sector, promoting sustainable and competitive shipping to meet the challenging GHG emissions reduction targets, consistent with the Paris Agreement goals.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 101111972
