The Week in Alternative Fuels

Here are some of the key developments in alternative bunker fuels from the past week.

PHOTO: Blueprint of H2opZee consortium's green hydrogen project in the North Sea. Neptune Energy

The last week of September has been a week of firsts for alternative fuels as companies across the globe have introduced new concepts and technologies to push green shipping efforts forward.

French hydrogen producer Lhyfe has commissioned its maiden offshore green hydrogen production plant, Sealyhfe. The plant has a 1 MW-capacity electrolyser and is expected to produce 400 kg/day of hydrogen.

Hurtigruten Norway has launched its first battery-hybrid ship, MS Richard With. It is the first of seven vessels in its fleet that will be upgraded to hybrids and partly run on batteries by early 2024.

Russia's first LNG bunker stem ever was delivered by a Gazprom bunker vessel to a Sovcomflot tanker.

Global bunker supplier Fratelli Cosulich has ordered its first ammonia bunker tanker from the Chinese shipyard Nantong CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering. The vessel was designed almost a year ago by Fratelli Cosulich in partnership with Singapore-based SeaTech Solutions and marine energy consultancy RINA.

Finally, Neptune Energy's H2opZee has announced feasibility awards for its North Sea green hydrogen project. As part of these contracts, H2SEA will design and engineer offshore platforms, Enersea will design pipelines, and Siemens Gamesa will design wind turbine generator systems.

By Konica Bhatt

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Here is our selection of five top alternative fuels stories from this week:

Lhyfe launches world’s first offshore hydrogen pilot

French hydrogen producer Lhyfe has commissioned an offshore green hydrogen production plant with 1 MW electrolyser capacity and a production capacity of 400 kg/day.

Lhyfe claims its Sealhyfe hydrogen factory will be the world's first offshore production facility for renewable hydrogen, which could help to decarbonise transportation and other industries.

US fuel cell maker Plug Power has developed an electrolyser for Sealhyfe with a capacity of 1 MW that can operate on a floating platform. The production unit is installed on a wave energy platform developed by Geps Techno.

Wavegem is a hybrid energy production platform combining solar and wave energy. It derives its energy from waves, converting its movements into electrical energy.

The unit will be tested quayside in Saint-Nazaire for six months before being taken 20 kilometres off the coast of Le Croisic. There, it will be supplied with electricity from a floating wind turbine.

During the 12-month offshore testing period, Sealhyfe will be monitored for challenges including its performance at all stages of hydrogen production.

Hurtigruten Norway launches first battery-hybrid powered ship

Cruise company Hurtigruten Norway has launched its first battery-hybrid powered ship, MS Richard With, as part of its €100 million ($96 million) upgrade initiative.

The vessel is the first of seven in its Coastal Express fleet to be upgraded by early 2024. It has been modified at Myklebust Yard in northwestern Norway to reduce emissions.

All the seven ships will be integrated with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems, which the Hurtigruten says can reduce nitrogen oxides emissions by 80%.

The latest upgrade follows launch of a battery-hybrid powered expedition ship by Hurtigruten Norway’s sister company Hurtigruten Expeditions in 2019.

Hurtigruten Expeditions currently has three battery-hybrid powered ships in its fleet.

First LNG stem delivered in Russia

Russian gas supplier Gazprom Neft has delivered the first ever LNG bunker stem to a tanker in Russian waters.

Gazprom Neft’s 5,800 cbm-capacity LNG bunker tanker Dmitry Mendeleev delivered 1,432 cbm of LNG to Sovcomflot’s tanker, Prospekt Koroleva, over four hours in the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga.

Dmitry Mendeleev is also Russia’s first LNG bunker vessel. Gazprom Neft has said it will supply vessels across the Baltic Sea, naming Primorsk and St. Petersburg as options.

“The first side-to-side refueling with liquefied natural gas we made in Russia actually kick-starts the development of a new fuel segment in the domestic shipping industry,” Gazprom Neft deputy chairman Anatoly Cherner said.

Sovcomflot launched a series of LNG-fuelled Aframax tankers from 2018 and has five LNG-fuelled crude oil and oil product tankers under construction.

Fratelli Cusulich approves construction of first ammonia bunker tanker

Global bunker supplier Fratelli Cosulich has put in an order for an ammonia bunker tanker with Chinese shipyard Nantong CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering.

Nantong CIMS is also building two LNG bunker vessels for Fratelli Cosulich. Construction of the ammonia bunker vessel will commence after the first of these two LNG bunker tankers are delivered.

In November last year, Fratelli Cosulich said it had teamed up with marine energy consultancy RINA and vessel designer SeaTech Solutions to design the ammonia bunker tanker.

Under the agreement, SeaTech would develop the ship concept, RINA would focus on compliance, and Fratelli Cosulich Bunkers Singapore would support and validate the ship design for commercial use.

Fratelli Cosulich thinks ammonia has great potential to curb emissions from shipping and is also working with the Singapore-based Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization (GCMD) on an ammonia bunker safety study.

Additionally, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has initiated a discussion on safety guidelines for ammonia at its recently held sub-committee meeting.

Neptune Energy's H2opZee announces feasibility study awards for North Sea green hydrogen project

The H2opZee consortium comprising oil and gas firm Neptune Energy and German energy company RWE aims to develop the H2opZee offshore green hydrogen project in the North Sea by 2030.

The contracts, effective from August 2022, include offshore platform concept design and engineering awarded to the Netherlands-based H2SEA, and pipeline concept design to offshore engineering firm Enersea.

Wind turbine generator systems concept work has been awarded to Spanish renewable energy firm Siemens Gamesa.

Phase 1 of the project which will last until mid-2023 involves assessing the feasibility of generating green hydrogen offshore, and phase 2 involves actual implementation.

This project aims to build 300-500 MW electrolyser capacity in the North Sea to produce green hydrogen using offshore wind.

Transportation of green hydrogen to the shore will be done via pipeline, Neptune Energy says, “Hydrogen is a gamechanger in the decarbonisation of energy-intensive sectors and H2opZee is a world first of this kind and scale,” said Sven Utermöhlen, chief executive of offshore wind at RWE Renewables.