MAN Cryo supplies fuel system for world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht
MAN Cryo has supplied a liquid-hydrogen gas-fuel supply system to a 118.8 m superyacht constructed by Feadship, the Dutch designer and builder. Known as ‘Project 821’, the newbuilding is the world's first hydrogen fuel-cell superyacht, according to the company's release.
MAN Cryo’s fuel-gas system will store the hydrogen in liquid form, evaporate and heat it, and supply gaseous hydrogen to the fuel cell enabling the zero-emission propulsion of the vessel. The company is a division of MAN Energy Solutions and a leading expert within engineering solutions for cryogenic equipment for the storage, distribution, and handling of gasses.
Although hydrogen fuel-cells have existed commercially for over six decades, no solution had previously been available within the maritime sector. Project 821’s fuel-cell technology can provide an entire week's worth of silent operation at anchor, or emission-free navigation at 10 knots when departing harbours or cruising in protected marine zones with pure water being the only emission.
MAN Cryo faced a number of challenges during the project, in great part owing to the lack of existing design codes and standards to follow in order to get approval for its tank design. Normally, type C LNG tanks are designed according to IGF code, but this is not fully applicable to hydrogen.
Instead, MAN Cryo approached Lloyds Register with a risk-assessment-based design that is considered safe and approved for placement below deck, a first of its kind in the world and just the second ever for a marine liquid-hydrogen project.
MAN Cryo’s scope of supply for the project includes:
a 92 m3 vacuum-insulated type C tank, storing liquid hydrogen at -253 degrees Celsius;
a tank connection space (TCS) including necessary process equipment such as vaporizers, control valves, safety valves, etc;
a bunker station, enabling shore-to-ship bunkering of liquid hydrogen;
control and automation systems, including the groundbreaking ‘tank prediction tool’, a feature that simulates tank pressure and tank-filling levels and helps crew to predict and plan bunkering operations;
a vent mast;
interconnecting hydrogen piping.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, MAN Cryo offers system design and engineering solutions for the storage, distribution and handling of liquefied gases and has a pioneering reputation within the marine sector. It supplied the world’s first LNG fuel-gas system for the ‘Glutra’ ferry in Norway in 1999, while in 2013 it supplied the world’s first LNG bunker vessel – the ‘SeaGas’ – with operations in Stockholm, Sweden. More recently, MAN Cryo has signed its first design contracts for methanol-supply systems, and obtained an approval in principle from several classing societies for its ammonia fuel-supply system.
