From Australia to Japan: The world's first hydrogen ship is on its way

"The hydrogen cooperation is based on the transport of LNG to North Asia. Japan is Australia's largest buyer of coal and LNG. The Suiso - the ship's name stands for hydrogen in Japanese - will take two weeks for the approximately 9,000-kilometer journey. The hydrogen is cooled down to minus 253 degrees and thus compressed 800 times. For comparison: A minus temperature of "only" 161 degrees Celsius is needed for LNG. "This venture can play a kind of pioneering role on the road to clean new energy for Japan," said Yuko Fukuma, spokeswoman for Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which designed and built the tanker. Alan Finkel, the Australian government's chief scientist, described the transport in the "giant thermos" on the ship as "a feat of engineering".

Another aspect is also important to Finkel: “Yes, you can send the energy via submarine cable, as Sun Cable is proposing between northern Australia and Singapore. But if you want an international marketplace like we have with LNG, where there are contracts and spot markets and you can go to every country in the world with a port, you have to ship the hydrogen, "-  he emphasizes the market economy component.

The overall project, including the liquefaction plant, was estimated at almost half a billion Australian dollars, with the Australian government contributing a tenth and the federal government of Victoria another part. The next stage of expansion will cost almost 200 million Australian dollars. In its later commercial phase, the HESC project is expected to produce 225,000 tons of liquefied hydrogen per year."

 If we expect container vessels to use hydrogen, then we need to prepare such huge thermoses that will store hydrogen in those vessels so that that hydrogen can be used as an energy source for the movement of those vessels. Therefore, this technological breakthrough may be the most important in human history.