World’s first liquid hydrogen bunkering facility for fuelling zero-emission ships revealed

Clean energy solutions provider Unitrove has unveiled the liquid hydrogen bunkering facility for fuelling zero-emission ships.

Said to be the world’s first, liquid hydrogen bunkering facility was unveiled at the City of Glasgow College’s Riverside Campus during the ongoing COP26 conference.

The UK-based firm said that the facility is vital to fuel an international shipping industry that accounts for around one billion tons of global carbon dioxide emissions.

As informed, the UK’s first liquefied natural gas bunkering facility was opened at Teesport in May 2015.

According to Unitrove’s CEO, Steven Lua, liquid hydrogen has potential for many uses, including plugging the gap where electric and compressed hydrogen can not reach.

He said his ambition was to enable clean, affordable, reliable, and sustainable fuelling options for ships at every port in the world, and he believes liquid hydrogen will play a vital role, especially for larger sea vessels.

“To achieve net-zero by 2050 needs the combined will of the industry and governments. As well as building new vessels, we need to ensure the infrastructure is in place. At this moment in time, there’s no clean-fuel bunkering infrastructure, it’s practically non-existent”, Lua added.

In the run-up to COP26, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) submitted plans to the industry’s UN regulator, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), pushing governments to double the IMO’s current target, which is to reduce emissions from international shipping by 50% by 2050.