ISL presents research on containerized maritime hydrogen transport

The recent Scotland - Northern Germany Hydrogen online workshop, organised by European Policy Solutions and NS HyMaP, discussed that ports will play a key role in energy transition and the development of hydrogen and its derivatives. In addition, the maritime industry will need to adopt these fuels to deliver decarbonisation targets set by the EU, national governments and the IMO. According to the Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Export Plan, Scottish ports will play a crucial role in the growing hydrogen sector, facilitating the export of hydrogen and hydrogen products to external markets.

During his presentation, Prof. Dr. Nils Meyer-Larsen, Managing Director of ISL, discussed the conclusions of the PROVIDE project on containerized maritime hydrogen transport. As hydrogen pipelines will not be available for several years, ship transport is an important alternative. However, there are currently neither transport ships nor transshipment or storage facilities of sufficient scale to import large quantities of hydrogen. In the PROVIDE project, ISL has investigated another option: Special pressurised gas containers that can be loaded with compressed hydrogen and transported across the oceans. The presentation showed that containerized maritime hydrogen transport can be a feasible alternative especially in the case of short transport distances, for instance around the North Sea.