Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries said on Tuesday it has signed a contract with Japan Suiso Energy to build the world's largest liquefied hydrogen carrier with a capacity of 40,000 cubic metres.
The vessel will be built at Kawasaki's Sakaide Works in Kagawa Prefecture in western Japan.
JSE is the operator for the government-backed New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization's Green Innovation Fund project, which aims to demonstrate ship-to-base loading and unloading of liquefied hydrogen and conduct ocean-going trials by the fiscal year ending March 2031.
Kawasaki built the world's first liquefied hydrogen carrier, the 1,250-cubic-metre Suiso Frontier, in 2021.
It participated in a Japan–Australia pilot demonstration the following year to show liquefied hydrogen can be exported safely to Japan.
The company said the new vessel is designed to meet anticipated global demand for hydrogen in the 2030s and support the development of a commercial hydrogen supply chain.
Kawasaki Heavy has said it aims to replicate its success as a major liquefied natural gas tanker producer with hydrogen, an element with the potential to help "decarbonise" industries and aid the so-called global energy transition.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Joe Bavier)
