Weighing approximately 8,000 tonnes, Suiso Frontier was launched by Kawasaki Heavy Industries at its Kobe Works yard, and marks the first stage in the Australia-Japan pilot project to produce liquefied hydrogen from brown coal.

The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) project at Port Hastings in Victoria, Australia will see liquefied hydrogen produced from Latrobe Valley brown coal transported to Japan for use in fuel cell electric vehicles and power generation.

The project is one of the world’s first efforts to commercialise technology to liquefy and transport hydrogen.

The new ship will transport liquefied hydrogen at 1/800 of its original gas-state volume, cooled to -253°C, safely and in large quantities over long distances by sea.

Kawasaki said it plans to install a 1,250m3 vacuum-insulated, double-shell-structure liquefied hydrogen storage tank, currently being manufactured at Harima Works, on the ship and complete the vessel’s construction by late 2020.

The Japanese firm also said it’s pursuing this hydrogen business as part of its efforts toward sustainable development goals.

“In 1981, Kawasaki became the first Asian company to manufacture a LNG carrier, and now as the world’s first company to complete a liquefied hydrogen carrier it will further its efforts toward achieving a Hydrogen Society,” Kawasaki said.