Finland – Wärtsilä has entered into a cooperative development agreement with Hycamite TCD Technologies, a privately held Finnish company that specializes in the creation of clean hydrogen and solid carbon from methane.
Together, the two companies will enable low-cost hydrogen production from LNG for marine vessels. The concept design will be finished by the middle of 2023, and the prototype testing unit will follow in the second half of 2024.
Incorporating the concept with Wärtsilä’s LNGPac Fuel Gas Supply System will allow for onboard hydrogen production while utilizing the existing LNG infrastructure. By producing hydrogen onboard and blending it with LNG, the current lineup of fuel-flexible Wärtsilä dual-fuel (DF) engines can reduce the ship’s overall carbon dioxide and methane slip emissions. The hydrogen could also be used in the onboard fuel cells as an alternative.
Technology application
The by-product of the process is solid carbon, which is easier to maintain onboard than carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the by-product of conventional procedures. The created carbon contains premium allotropes of carbon, including industrial graphite and carbon nanotubes, which could represent an additional source of income.
The technique is theoretically applicable to all LNG-fueled vessels. When bioLNG is employed, this technique even allows for carbon-negative power generation on ships.
