DNV AWARDS AIP TO SHI SOFC-POWERED LNGC DESIGN

SHI noted that the next step for the technology would be a demonstration test at its Geoje LNG research facility. The company plans to subsequently begin promoting the SOFC-powered design to interested ship owners.

Commenting on the development, Ho-Hyun Jeong, head of Samsung Heavy Industries’ technology development division, said, “The fuel cell-powered vessel is a new concept vessel that can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as noise and vibrations and maintenance costs, by replacing an internal combustion engine with a fuel cell.”

The newly developed fuel cell-powered LNGC design replaces both the gensets and the main engine with SOFCs using LNG as fuel. The new design will feature up to 30MW of SOFCs, as previously reported in The Motorship in September 2020. At the time, an SHI representative confirmed to The Motorship that the company planned to complete an SOFC-powered 174,000m3 LNGC newbuilding “for the end of 2022”.

The design utilises the SOFC technology of US fuel cell developer Bloom Energy: the two companies agreed a deal to cooperate on the development of the LNGC design in 2020. The two parties previously collaborated on an oil tanker design that substituted 3MW of SOFCs for gensets in 2019, in what was the first AiP for this type of technology.

During the development of the oil tanker design, SHI developed the core manufacturing processes including the fuelling system and power control system for the fuel cells.