A Vessel Powered by LNG and Hydrogen
The Hydrogen Vessel Technology Center at Pusan National University announced on Oct. 27 that it will develop an eco-friendly ship for collecting and treating floating waste at sea.
The envisioned vessel is a hybrid ship that uses liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydrogen as its fuel. It is an eco-friendly vessel designed in preparation for strengthened maritime environment regulations. The process to break and store marine waste can be carried out on the ship itself.
Pusan National University plans to develop a waste freezing and destruction technology that uses the cryogenic temperature generated in the LNG heat exchange process and a propulsion system powered by hydrogen which is generated in the LNG reforming process. Marine waste collected from the sea is processed into powder via eight stages in the vessel.
The ship will have a 4,000-square-meter cargo tank that stores marine waste in the form of powder and proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), which is a hydrogen generator.
Pusan National University plans to build a 115.8-meter-long, 20-meter-wide 5,000-ton vessel for verification purpose in consultation with shipbuilders such as Hanjin Heavy Industries.
Pusan National University has applied for a joint R&D project involving various ministries including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Ministry of Science and ICT in order to secure a budget (29 billion won from the central government and 16 billion won from local governments and the private sector) for the LNG-hydrogen hybrid ship.