GEV’s C-H2 ship project approaches key milestone

Australian energy transition company Global Energy Ventures (GEV) has completed the ship specification engineering for its proposed 430-tonne pilot compressed hydrogen (C-H2) ship for review by a shipping regulator.

Ship specification engineering and drawings, stability analysis and tank design calculations have been submitted to the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) with approval-in-principle (AIP) expected by the end of the third quarter in 2021.

The AIP process assesses the design in relation to international codes and standards to ensure there are no major engineering, regulatory or safety issues.

What is more, GEV is leveraging the 2,000-tonne AiP program to fast-track AiP for this pilot ship and to ultimately target full-class approvals by late 2022.

GEV submitted the C-H2 Ship design with its twin 1,000 tonne C-H2 tanks to ABS for review in November 2020.

The prime focus of the approval was the design and safety of the compressed hydrogen containment system. ABS undertook extensive hazard identification analysis (HAZID) prior to issuing the AiP.

In June 2021, GEV also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with technology group Wärtsilä to cooperate on the inclusion of Wärtsilä propulsion systems in GEV’s compressed hydrogen ships.

Canadian engineering consulting provider C-FER Technologies has recently completed an independent analysis of hydrogen permeability which supported GEV’s design assumptions and the selection of a stainless-steel inner liner.

The company is supporting the selection of carbon steel and welding techniques in preparation for prototype construction and testing in 2022.

“GEV is targeting the pilot 430-tonne compressed hydrogen ship to be the first commercial-scale vessel available for the marine transport of hydrogen and support our commercialisation activity, which now includes the recently announced feasibility study for the HyEnergy Project, located in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia,” GEV’s managing director and CEO Martin Carolan said.

In order to meet net-zero emissions targets by 2050, Global Energy targets to host an operating fleet of compressed hydrogen carriers by the mid-2020s.

Recently, the firm announced a zero carbon hydrogen feasibility study for the HyEnergy project with partners Province Resources and independent power producer Total Eren. The project’s scoping study is expected to be completed in 2021.

Last year, GEV introduced the world’s first large-scale compressed hydrogen (C-H2) ship to fast track the marine transport of hydrogen.