Sustainable Shipping
report states. “This will only be possible if a large proportion of the fleet is using commercially viable zero-carbon fuels.” CANADA’S HYDROGEN ADVANTAGES The fund would further research and optimize already identified zero-emission options, such as hydrogen. Already among the world’s top 10 hydrogen producers, Canada is now actively pursuing a strategy to become a leading producer, user and exporter, while also using it to help achieve the country’s 2050 net-zero goal. Canada’s advantages include ample feedstock (as biomass for production energy), a strong energy sector, and geographic assets that include water proximity and supply. Approximately 10 kilograms of water is required for every kilogram of hydrogen. While the water’s purity is essential, research is already underway to use sea water by having it first go through a purification. “When hydrogen is produced through electrolysis, which involves running electricity through purified water to split the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, clean oxygen is immediately released into the air and the spent hydrogen becomes a vapor that ultimately reverts to water,” explains Nirmal Gnanapragasam, the senior process/ modeling scientist at the Hydrogen Technologies Branch of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) Ltd.
Transport Canada has awarded CNL a contract to assess the realities of using hydrogen as a marine fuel to achieve IMO targets. CNL is researching hydrogen’s advantages, challenges, practicalities and logistics, including the lifecycle of this energy’s production and use with, for example, liquid natural case. “In addition to zero GHG, hydrogen offers an opportunity to eliminate particulate matter from ships,” notes Gordon Burton, CNL’s hydrogen program manager. CNL is also exploring some technologies that would enable feasible emissions-free hydrogen production. Some of the major challenges relate to the energy required to make hydrogen, establishing ample supply, as well as how to store a fuel that needs at least triple diesel’s space. “It could be ships will have to do two bunkering stops instead of one,” Gnanapragasam says. CNL is developing a tool to provide these answers on a fleet basis. “If we know the power required by a fleet of navy, coast guard, or ferry vessels, or a fleet’s ships by classification, we can determine whether obtaining the necessary energy to make and supply the required hydrogen is a sustainable proposition,” Gnanapragasam explains. Various options are being studied in terms of onboard fuel storage with vessel designers and operators helping to identify every possible space unoccupied by diesel.
Storing hydrogen gas as a pumpable liquid would provide a better mass/ volume ratio. “Another option is to turn the hydrogen into ammonia that could be used directly or converted back to hydrogen depending on engine requirements,” Gnanapragasam adds. ENERGY SOURCE HURDLES Huge among the considerations is the energy required to ‘split’ water into hydrogen and oxygen. “You can use all electricity, but this could put excessive demands on the grid as we move towards greater overall electrification,” Gnanapragasam says. “So, we can also use a combination of electricity and heat that involves burning a biomass.” CNL is also investigating the possible use of a small-scale landside nuclear reactor as a production energy source. Having the hydrogen readily supplied by all ports would reduce onboard storage issues. “It’s a question of how to set up either a biomass gasification or a small nuclear reactor source of reliable energy to produce the necessary hydrogen to keep vessels supplied at the scale required,” Burton says. The Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières already has a pilot project that uses biomass gasification to create hydrogen. A British Columbia company is looking at using forest waste to create hydrogen for export to Japan by tankers. n
A typical container vessel would need the power of 10,000 Tesla S85 batteries daily.
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