An international hydrogen market will likely initially hinge on the derivatives of the gas, such as ammonia and methanol, according to industry experts speaking at the recent World Hydrogen Congress.

Firms such as Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries have started to develop vessels to transport liquid hydrogen, but they have yet to reach wide levels of adoption and can only carry relatively small volumes at present.

The market for pure hydrogen will not develop with the same ease as the natural gas market due to shipping difficulties, according to Mansur Zhakupov, vice-president for hydrogen production and distribution at TotalEnergies.

“Compared to the liquefaction of natural gas, transforming hydrogen into something that can be shipped is more energy consuming, more difficult and more expensive,” he says, noting that hydrogen’s derivatives and “finished products” can be shipped more easily.

“Transforming hydrogen into something that can be shipped is more energy consuming, more difficult and more expensive” Zhakupov, TotalEnergies

This is a view echoed by Kajsa Ryttberg-Wallgren, executive vice-president and head of hydrogen business unit at Swedish startup H2 Green Steel (H2GS).

“We do not see that transporting green hydrogen makes sense financially,” she says, adding that either shipping hydrogen-derived green iron and steel products to global markets or shipping hydrogen to manufacturing sites as ammonia were more feasible options.

Having a crack at it

Ammonia is an increasingly popular option for shipping hydrogen in the near term. However, while it benefits from existing infrastructure, there are not enough tankers and terminals at present to handle the foreseen rise in hydrogen production.

Rotterdam is scaling up its ammonia and methanol capacity in preparation for a rise in imports of both chemicals as hydrogen carriers. The port already has multiple terminals with capacity to store methanol and one 1mn t/yr ammonia terminal. Five new ammonia terminals are expected to come online over the next 4-5 years, while a new ammonia pipeline through the port and an expansion of the Delta Corridor—a network of four pipelines between Rotterdam and Germany—to include an ammonia pipeline are also being explored.

The port plans to co-install re-cracking facilities at three of the five terminals and is investigating whether to have a large, centralised cracker or several distributed crackers at each terminal.

Currently, 75pc of all export-oriented hydrogen projects plan to use ammonia as a carrier, but this could change in the future, according to Martijn Coopman, hydrogen programme manager at the Port of Rotterdam.

“We actually believe that, within ten years, there is going to be a shift there, and potentially with liquid hydrogen technology becoming more mature, it is going to take a larger share,” he says. He expects liquid hydrogen terminals to be constructed at the port by 2030, with the port’s analysis suggesting liquid hydrogen could be the leading form of traded hydrogen after 2035.

Direct use

Converting hydrogen to ammonia and re-cracking it back to hydrogen can result in a 22pc loss in energy.

The market also currently lacks “any facilities or infrastructure in place to convert ammonia back to hydrogen and then deliver it”, according to Andrew Doyle, executive director at Japanese bank MUFG.

As a result, another option would be for ammonia or methanol to be used directly in industrial applications without being reconverted to hydrogen.

1mn t/yr – Port of Rotterdam’s ammonia capacity

Several trials to explore ammonia utilisation in the power sector are underway in Japan, according to Shigeru Muraki, president of the Clean Fuel Ammonia Association. Government funding has gone towards a large-scale demonstration project to co-fire existing coal plants with ammonia, due to conclude in 2023, as well as trials to run gas turbines on ammonia as a blend and as a single fuel.

Two other potential shipping options for hydrogen include compressed hydrogen and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs). LOHCs are similar in form to oil products and can be carried on product tankers.

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Author: Polly Martin