hyundai Heavy Group has developed a DF (Dual Fuel) block for large ships and land stationary systems fueled with a mixture of LNG and hydrogen.
Proponents of using hydrogen to power fuel cells for mobility will tell you that using this gas in thermal blocks has various disadvantages, including the emission of nitrogen oxides. It is therefore necessary to add a pollution control system, the limits of which are increasingly being discovered on diesel engines.
Hyundai Heavy Group responds to critics of its solution that it inherits a longer lifespan than fuel cells, especially those used to produce electricity for small-scale land applications. In addition, performance is better with a compression ignition mechanism which also makes it possible to adapt almost instantaneously to real electricity needs.
With its partner Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Group has developed a block with a power of 1.5 MW, which can be used to propel large boats, but also to produce power on land like a conventional generator. A first, at least on the scale of Korea, for a system of this size fueled with a mixture of liquefied natural gas and hydrogen. This leads the 2 companies to see themselves as leaders in this technology on a global scale.
A dual-fuel hydrogen LNG
Virtuous or not this engine? ” There is a growing interest and need for carbon neutrality in the shipbuilding and maritime industries. It is possible with this engine “, assure the partners.
If it can operate with diesel fuel as needed, it is when it is powered with a mixture of LNG and hydrogen that the block aligns environmental performance. The emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and fine dust would then be considerably reduced.
The 1.5 MW unit has just passed a battery of tests which enabled its performance to be verified. It thus complies with level 3 of the regulations on nitrogen oxides of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This is the maximum score. It rewards both high decarbonization, but also a significant reduction in the methane usually released into the atmosphere due to incomplete combustion.
100% hydrogen target
For the 2 companies, this Himsen engine (Hi-touch Marine & Stationary ENGine), the first version of which was produced in 1979, represents a step towards a future heat engine which can only be stuffed with the H2 molecule from 2025.
In the meantime, Hyundai Heavy Group and Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering will continue their research and development work to achieve an increasingly rich hydrogen supply by 2023. And this, always targeting applications on the water and on land. It is however on the sea that the new system could give the best of itself at the environmental level, in the power unit of a boat transporting liquefied hydrogen. The boil-off gas (BOG = Boil-off-Gas) that would be produced during the crossings could be recovered to supply the block.
Hyundai Heavy Industries does not shun fuel cells
If the Hyundai Heavy Industries group does not hesitate to promote its new solution, in particular during the Gastech exhibition which took place in Milan (Italy) last September, it is not by sulking for as much the systems formed around the batteries fuel.
With the AVL group, the Korean shipbuilder is actively developing architectures using fuel cells with powers between 200 kW and 1.5 MW. Different branches of the Korean giant are involved in the development of a whole range of solutions for using hydrogen to propel small and large boats, converging towards the same horizon: 2030. The large Himsen blocks should also be developed to accept synthetic fuels and biofuels around 2025.
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