China completes the world's longest liquid hydrogen sea transport

On October 22, China National Offshore Oil Corporation learned that the "Sarat Cargo Ship" successfully arrived at Shenzhen Yantian Port after more than 10,000 miles of sea shipping. This means that the world's longest liquid hydrogen shipping demonstration project has been successfully completed, marking that China has entered a new track of "first-mover advantage" in the development of the global hydrogen energy long-distance transoceanic transportation and utilization industry.

Safe and efficient hydrogen transportation technology is a key link in determining whether the hydrogen energy industry can develop rapidly. The current transportation forms are mainly gaseous hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, and organic hydrogen storage and transportation. Among them, liquid hydrogen has the advantages of high energy density and high transportation efficiency, making it the preferred form for solving the problem of large-scale and long-distance hydrogen transportation in the future.

This cross-oceanic liquid hydrogen transportation demonstration project uses cold tank containers for loading. The cargo ship was loaded from the European Port of Rotterdam on September 4 local time, and passed through the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope and then to the Strait of Malacca, and finally arrived at Shenzhen Yantian Port, completing the first long-distance cross-oceanic transportation of liquid hydrogen above tonnage.

Xiao Li, chief designer of the Technology Research and Development Center of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, said that the project team systematically carried out technical research on the entire industry chain of long-distance transoceanic transportation of liquid hydrogen, and made breakthroughs in technical difficulties such as liquid hydrogen tank sea transportation process control technology, quantitative risk identification technology for the entire industry chain, and "direct loading from the ship" loading and unloading of Class 2.1 hazardous chemicals of liquid hydrogen at ports. It broke through the safety and technical bottlenecks in each link and ensured the smooth progress of the "maiden voyage".

Liquid hydrogen used in fuel cells can effectively extend their lifespan. It can also achieve low-temperature storage and high-precision supply under multiple working conditions. The technology is highly mature and is therefore the most competitive and potential fuel for heavy-load, long-distance hydrogen vehicles.

At present, the global market usage of liquid hydrogen is over 500 tons per day, and the domestic liquid hydrogen production capacity is as high as 5 tons per day. It is mainly used in aerospace and other fields, and there is a lot of room for the scale of civilian liquid hydrogen use.

Xiao Li, chief designer of the Technology Research and Development Center of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, said that liquid hydrogen has a high purity, and the content of impurities such as sulfur and chlorine can be effectively controlled in each link of the technical route, which can effectively meet the special requirements of high-end manufacturing fields such as semiconductors, vacuum materials, silicon chips, and optical fibers.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, more than 30% of hydrogen production will be used for international trade by 2050. As the largest hydrogen producer, China can produce 40 million tons of hydrogen annually. The successful implementation of the long-distance transoceanic liquid hydrogen transportation demonstration project has explored new practical paths to promote the construction of innovation and industrial chains in China.