News / Samskip's new feeders to be built in India with recycled steel

Image: Samskip

Samskip’s decision to commission Cochin Shipyard in India to construct its two hydrogen-fuelled feeder vessels will see much of the steel used recycled from India’s large ship-scrapping sector.

Co-funded by Norway’s ENOVA, the 730 teu vessels, able to carry 45ft intermodal containers, are designed to operate on hydrogen between Oslo and Rotterdam, a distance of 1,300km. They will be powered by fuel cells, with a back-up diesel genset.

With delivery scheduled for 2025, the pressure will be on Cochin Shipyard to design a way of storing enough hydrogen fuel for each vessel, fuel cells sufficient to power it, as well as corresponding diesel generator, batteries and fuel tanks. ABB India secured a contract to provide the power distribution system for the vessels last month.

Second only to Bangladesh as the world’s largest shipbreaking country, India has a ready supply of scrap steel, and its government has stated its intention to make better use of this resource. At a conference in February, minister of steel Jyotiraditya Scindia said “…the percentage of scrap used in the production of steel should go up to 50%, with only 50% being dependent on iron ore”.

Doing so would dramatically reduce the use of coking coal in India’s steelmaking. Use of coking coal and iron ore in virgin steel production outstrips almost every other industrial process, in terms of its proportionate contribution to emissions.

Though they are bulky and have some cooling concerns, fuel cells show considerable potential for improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines (ICEs). While engine technology is mature and large efficiency improvements are almost unheard of, fuel cell technology, already beating ICEs in efficiency, still has much potential to explore.

However, a major limitation of hydrogen is the electrical power required to keep its fuel at temperatures close to absolute zero 24/7, for which considerable battery storage is required, further detracting from the vessel’s cargo fraction.

In Norway, the government is matter-of-fact about its plans for blue hydrogen – made from fossil fuels using still mostly theoretical carbon-capture technology – which will be one method for the country to continue exploiting and selling its abundant supply of North Sea crude oil.

Norway will export some 300,000 tonnes of hydrogen by 2030, most of which will be highly-emitting ‘grey’, made from unabated steam-reforming, classification society DNV has predicted.