Japan's Suiso Frontier in Australia to load first liquefied hydrogen cargo

Japan's cargo ship Suiso Frontier is set to arrive at Australian state Victoria Jan. 20 and is expected to sail back with the world's first liquified hydrogen in the week starting Jan. 23, a spokesperson of the hydrogen project Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain Project said, in what would be a significant development for transporting hydrogen for commercial use.

A source close to the HESC project also said that the Suiso Frontier is arriving at Hastings Jan. 20. The Suiso Frontier, which had been estimated to arrive Hastings Jan. 19, was moored in South Australia and Victoria at 0627 GMT Jan. 20, according to Platts cFlow trade-flow analytics software.

Suiso Frontier left the liquefied hydrogen loading terminal Hy touch Kobe on Dec. 24 destined for port of Hastings in Victoria. After various field tests, it will return to Kobe loaded with liquefied hydrogen generated from brown coal in the middle of February 2022, according to a statement from Hydrogen Energy Supply-chain Technology Research Association, or HySTRA, in December.

HySTRA, whose members are Electric Power Development or J-POWER, Shell Japan, Iwatani, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, or KHI, Marubeni, ENEOS and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, is the Japan-funded portion of the HESC pilot phase.

The Australia-funded portion of the HESC project is coordinated by Hydrogen Engineering Australia, or HEA, a consortium comprised of KHI, J-POWER, Iwatani, Marubeni, AGL and Sumitomo, with HEA being a 100% subsidiary of KHI. The Australian and Victorian Governments are providing funds to the Australian portion.

The HESC project aims to produce and transport clean liquid hydrogen from Australia's Latrobe Valley and the key objective of the pilot project is to demonstrate an end-to-end supply chain with Japan, that would cover a one-way distance of 9,000 km. It involves brown coal gasification and hydrogen refining in the Latrobe Valley and hydrogen liquefaction and storage of liquefied hydrogen at the port of Hastings.

The 8,000 gross tonnes Suiso Frontier, the world's first liquefied hydrogen carrier with a cargo loading capacity of 1,250 cu m, is using one of the two storage tanks for carrying some 75 mt of liquefied hydrogen for this transport, a source told S&P Global Platts in December.

Suiso Frontier has been built by KHI.

Platts assessed Victoria hydrogen produced via lignite gasification, with CCS, including CAPEX at $2.58/kg Jan. 19, up 3.2% from Dec. 20.

Japan hydrogen produced via SMR without CCS, including capex was assessed at $4.12/kg Jan. 19, down 42.7% from Dec. 20.