Too cold to handle? Race is on to pioneer shipping of hydrogen

[TexasTowelie]

Hydrogen is touted as an inevitable green fuel of the future. Tell that to the people who'll have to ship it across the globe at hyper-cold temperatures close to those in outer space.

Yet that is exactly what designers are attempting to do.

In the biggest technological challenge for merchant shipping in decades, companies are beginning to develop a new generation of vessels that can deliver hydrogen to heavy industry, betting plants worldwide will convert to the fuel and propel the transition to a lower-carbon economy.

There are at least three projects developing pilot ships that will be ready to test transporting the fuel in Europe and Asia within the next three years, the companies involved told Reuters.

The major challenge is to keep the hydrogen chilled at minus 253 degrees Celsius - only 20 degrees above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature - so it stays in liquid form, while avoiding the risk that parts of a vessel could crack.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/too-cold-handle-race-is-pioneer-shipping-hydrogen-2021-05-11/

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Used to work at an industrial gas supplier.

Helium, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Acetylene....we bottled all of them. The one we always worried about was Hydrogen. Dropped bottles were always a "oh shit" moment.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Back when LNG tankers were new, company I worked for commissioned a study...

Seemed as though if one "blew" it could take out all of Tokyo harbor and miles out to sea. The frozen gas wouldn't explode, but it would carpet the sea, freezing it and killing everything in its way. Then it would "melt" and eventually catch fire-- one hell of a big fire, with possible localized explosions. Tokyo actually closed its harbor to LNG tankers.

Hydrogen would be worse, I suspect.