South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries and US-based Bloom Energy have received basic design approval from classification society DNV for their fuel cell-powered LNG carrier.
This approval in principle would help commercialize the world’s first LNG carrier operating on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), according to SHI.
In September 2019, Samsung became the first shipyard in the world to receive an approval in principle by DNV for a fuel cell-powered Aframax crude oil tanker. In July last year, the yard signed a joint development agreement with Bloom Energy.
The fuel cell-powered LNG carrier does not require an internal combustion engine or other equipment that uses oil, the yard said. The technology replaces oil-based power generators with solid oxide fuel cells using LNG as fuel.
Therefore, it does not generate harmful substances such as sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) and it can also significantly reduce CO2 emissions, it said.
SHI said it would conduct tests at the new LNG pilot test facility at its Geoje shipyard before launching full-scale marketing for the technology.