Recently, led by Huacanke Marine Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and co-developed by Yuchai and dozens of other participating units, the "Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine + Organic Liquid Hydrogen Storage" power system was completed at Shanghai Hongqi Shipyard and successfully passed the first-phase joint commissioning.
After the completion of this key commissioning, the supporting world's first inland river vessel powered by a hydrogen internal combustion engine will enter the construction phase and is expected to be launched by the end of this year.
At present, the technical route of power systems for inland river shipping vessels in China is mostly diesel power fueled by heavy oil. Traditional heavy diesel-powered vessels have high carbon emissions and face prominent environmental pressure.
The technical routes of new energy vessel power systems for the energy transition of inland river shipping mainly take natural gas, pure electricity, and hydrogen fuel cell propulsion as the main power sources, but they have great limitations in popularization and application in inland river shipping.
After extensive market research, demonstration and technical pre-research, the joint R&D team selected the technical route of "Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine + Organic Liquid Hydrogen Storage".
Organic liquid hydrogen storage is an efficient and safe hydrogen storage and transportation technology. It uses organic molecules that are liquid at room temperature and atmospheric pressure as "hydrogen carriers", realizing the storage and release of hydrogen through reversible chemical reactions, thus providing a reusable "liquid container" for hydrogen.
This technology solves the pain points of traditional hydrogen storage and transportation and greatly reduces the cost of long-distance and large-scale hydrogen transportation.
All indicators of the 800-ton-class inland river shipping vessel equipped with the "Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine + Organic Liquid Hydrogen Storage" power system meet the on-board standards, marking a critical engineering breakthrough in China's marine hydrogen internal combustion engine coupled with organic liquid hydrogen storage technology and opening up a complete technical chain covering hydrogen storage materials, reaction devices and system integration.
This breakthrough will not only promote the green and low-carbon transformation of China's shipbuilding industry, but also drive the coordinated development of the upstream and downstream of the hydrogen energy industry chain, with enormous potential economic benefits.