Houlder collaborates with Shell for hydrogen gas carrier

Houlder, a UK design and engineering consultancy, has conducted a fuel and propulsion feasibility study and concept structural design work on a 20,000-m3 liquid hydrogen carrier for oil major Shell’s International Trading and Shipping Co.

The company said it used computational fluid dynamics analysis to verify and optimise its vessel concept design. Houlder recently acquired hydrodynamics and maritime technical consulting firm Seaspeed Marine Consulting to boost its hydrodynamics, computer simulation and technical data analysis.

Houlder also recently completed related work for Shell on hydrogen containment systems and carried out a ship piping and instrumentation review for ships carrying hydrogen as a cargo or as a fuel.

In December 2022, Shell International Trading and Shipping Co Ltd signed an MoU with Alfa Laval regarding the development of a new gas combustion unit (GCU) for use on liquid hydrogen carriers. The project will see Alfa Laval develop a system to safely combust hydrogen boil-off gas from a storage tank on board a new liquid hydrogen carrier. The design of the new GCU system for hydrogen will be based on Alfa Laval’s existing GCU for LNG.

Because venting cargo is restricted, a gas combustion unit offers a means of controlling tank pressure and temperature when the boil-off gas poses safety risks beyond the tank’s design conditions.

In 2022, Shell worked with LNG tank designer GTT to design a mid-sized LH2 carrier, and later in the year received DNV approval for the LH2 tank and carrier designs the project produced.

From 2017, Shell also supported development of the first LH2 carrier by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) through the CO2-free Hydrogen Energy Supply-Chain Research Association in Japan.

The carrier, named Suiso Frontier, completed by KHI, successfully undertook its maiden voyage a year ago, arriving in Australia from Japan in late January after a 10-day trip, laden with a cargo of liquefied hydrogen.