Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering to demonstrate fuel cell-applied ship operation

KSOE signed a consortium agreement to demonstrate fuel cells for ships with Shell, Doosan Fuel Cell, HyAxiom and DNV. From the left: Vidar Dolonen, regional manager Korea and Japan of DNV; Samhyun Ka, vice chairman and CEO of KSOE; Karrie Trauth, senior VP of Shell; Jeff Hyungrak Chung, president and CEO of HyAxiom; Hooseok Che, executive VP and COO of Doosan Fuel Cell. Photo Credit: Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group (Seoul, South Korea) launches a project to demonstrate fuel cells for large vessels like ships with global energy companies Shell (London, U.K.), Doosan Fuel Cell (Seoul, South Korea), HyAxiom (East Hartford, Conn., U.S.) and DNV (Oslo, Norway). The consortium agreement was signed on Oct. 11 by Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), the intermediate holding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group’s shipbuilding sector.

According to the agreement, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group will use a 600-kilowatt, high-efficiency solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) for power generation on a 174,000 cubic-meter liquified natural gas (LNG) carrier to be run by Shell from 2025. The LNG carrier will use fuel cells as an auxiliary power unit (APU) and perform its demonstration for one year on the actual trade route. Ultimately, Hyundai plans to develop and supply high-efficiency, eco-friendly ships that can apply fuel cells to propulsion power sources in the long term.

Shell will be in charge of managing and operating the ship, as well as managing the demonstration project, while Doosan Fuel Cell and HyAxiom will develop and supply fuel cells for the ship. DNV will conduct inspections of the structure and equipment of the demonstration ship for accreditation registration.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has announced environmental regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the shipping industry. Accordingly, next-generation ships that apply high-efficiency fuel innovation systems, such as fuel cells, along with eco-friendly energy sources, such as LNG, hydrogen and ammonia, have been drawing significant attention from related businesses.

“The shipbuilding and shipping industries are experiencing rapid innovations environmentally friendly and digitally,” KSOE vice chairman Ka notes. “We expect to preoccupy next-generation eco-friendly ship technologies and speed up marine decarbonization through this fuel cell-applied ship demonstration.”

In addition to this agreement, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group is developing its own SOFC technologies to promote fuel cell development projects.