A new joint venture (JV) between Dutch storage operator Vopak and Germany’s Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies to advance the use of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) to transport hydrogen will take advantage of a growing demand for the technology, the firms say.

Hydrogen is more expensive and dangerous to transport than other fuels, such as natural gas, reducing the cost-effectiveness of global trade. Technologies that can address the cost and safety issues are therefore attracting investment interest because cheap productions centres—such as Australia, the Middle East and the Americas—tend to be located in different regions to net importers such as the EU and the Far East.

There are five main technologies that could be used to transport hydrogen, all with varying levels of efficiency and cost.

“In the end, there will be multiple technologies that are being used, depending on the use case” Lehmann, Hydrogenious

The most developed in terms of intercontinental transport is ammonia, which relies on chemical and semi-refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas tankers. Hydrogen can also be liquefied and transported, just as natural gas is. but it requires cooling to -253°C and use of specially constructed vessels—only one of which is operational. Other options are compressing hydrogen and conversion to methanol.

Vopak and Hydrogenious believe LOHC technology has major advantages over the other methods.

“The hazard potential is even smaller than for diesel and thus clearly superior to ammonia,” Andreas Lehmann, chief strategy officer of Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, tells Hydrogen Economist. “Also we can re-use conventional liquid fuel [oil product] infrastructure for storage and transport.”

Natural chemistry

Making an LOHC involves attaching hydrogen to carrier molecules—in this case the thermal oil benzyl toluene—and then re-extracting pure hydrogen at the destination. LOHCs are similar in form to oil products and can be carried on product tankers.

Conversion to and from an LOHC uses 35–45pc of the energy in the hydrogen itself, according to the IEA. This compares to 7–18pc for ammonia.

But there are other factors affecting shipping costs—chief among which is the size of the vessel, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Shipping via LOHCs offers low vessel capex and the opportunity to use larger ships.

Ultimately, there will be space for a number of different carrier technologies, according to Lehmann.

“In the end, there will be multiple technologies that are being used, depending on the use case. For example, the Port of Amsterdam is committed to organic and inorganic hydrogen carries, since ammonia is too dangerous for densely populated areas,” he says.

“Studies from different organisations show that LOHC is very well-suited for large volumes of hydrogen transported via ship over long distances.”

It is these use cases that Vopak and Hydrogenious will be particularly looking at through their JV—entitled LOHC Logistix.

Scaling up

While agreeing that there is plenty of room for scaling up their technology, the two firms contest the argument it is not yet commercialised.

An LOHC supply chain is already in place to supply filling stations in the German state of Bavaria, they note.

They also point to the development of an 1,800t storage plant in Dormagen, Germany; the H2A project to import hydrogen via LOHC carriers into Amsterdam; and the Northern Green Crane project, which would see Sweden exporting industrial-scale volumes of green hydrogen to Germany and the Netherlands by 2026.

“The process to crack ammonia is not commercially available yet. In comparison, the release of hydrogen from LOHCs is much further advanced,” says Lehmann.

"Hence, you can say that LOHC is indeed commercial, while at the same time we are of course working on the scale-up of our LOHC technology.”

Vopak became involved as a strategic investor in Hydrogenious in 2019 with a shareholding of around 10pc. Taking into account a loan from Vopak to Hydrogenious that can be converted into an equity stake following future funding rounds, the two firms are taking equal equity shares in the new JV.

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Author: Tom Young