Flexible Liquid HYdrogen Tank

Liquid hydrogen (LH2) is an energy carrier that could become a low-carbon alternative to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the global transport of energy in the future. A new tank concept for large-scale transport of liquid hydrogen aboard ships has been developed by Moss Maritime in collaboration with SINTEF Energy and SINTEF Industry. The hydrogen market is rapidly evolving, and to offer a commercially attractive concept for large-scale transport and storage of liquid hydrogen, it is considered necessary to build a prototype tank to demonstrate the technology and concept. In this project, Moss Maritime, in collaboration with SINTEF Energy, will further develop the concept for the storage and transport of liquid hydrogen to become a flexible system that can be scaled down to medium and small tanks. The ambition is to develop a prototype tank designed for the storage of liquid hydrogen under atmospheric pressure but capable of withstanding operational pressures of up to 8 bar. This is done to provide a flexible concept that can be used in various applications, such as a fuel tank for ships with propulsion systems using hydrogen as fuel. Both the tank structure and insulation materials will be verified and analyzed using extensive advanced numerical models and computational tools. Nevertheless, there will be a need to demonstrate that the technology functions as intended by building a test tank. Therefore, an important part of the project is also to develop a test program and test procedures intended to be used to demonstrate the technology in practice. The current project does not include the construction and testing of the prototype tank, but a budget and plans will be established for the construction, transportation, and testing of such a tank. This will serve as the basis for the next phase of the project, which will focus on the construction and testing of a hydrogen tank.

Liquefied hydrogen (LH2) is a promising low-carbon alternative to liquefied natural gas (LNG) for global transport of energy with high energy density and a large degree of flexibility. Ship transport is necessary to realise large-scale LH2 value chains, but no full-scale LH2 carrier ships currently exist. Today, about 20% of the global LNG fleet relies on the spherical LNG tank concept from the Norwegian technology company Moss Maritime (MOSS). This tank design has an excellent track record of failure-free operation and has proven to maintain full integrity over their lifetime. MOSS seeks to adapt this concept to transport of LH2 and use its unique position in the LNG market to provide designs for large-scale LH2 carrier ships. A novel tank concept for large-scale ship transport (~160,000 m3) has successfully been developed to TRL 4 by MOSS, SINTEF Energy Research and SINTEF Industry in the IPN project HyLaSST (RCN grant agreement no: 321591). The FLH2YT project will pave the way for a system prototype demonstration tank (TRL 6). Structural and thermal assessment of the demonstration tank will be conducted, along with the development of a testing scope for the demonstration tank. Preparations for construction of the demonstration tank, including detailed design documentation and cost analysis will be made. The demonstration-scale tank will be designed to hold up to 8 bar pressure and may form the basis for a new product: A flexible, multi-purpose, medium-scale LH2 storage solution.