CMB.TECH chief strategy officer, Paul Turner, discusses why the Belgian shipping group thinks hydrogen is the answer to its decarbonisation ambitions
With some 150 sea-going vessels that carry dry bulk, containers, chemicals and even crew for offshore wind, Belgium-based CMB has its focus clearly on reducing the CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions from its fleet and future-proofing its assets.
“CMB has been looking at how we are going to decarbonise our fleet and we have decided the answer is hydrogen,” explained CMB.TECH chief strategy officer, Paul Turner, during an interview at the Maritime Decarbonisation, Europe Conference, Awards & Exhibition in Amsterdam in September. “The big question now is how we carry that hydrogen and how we use it in the vessel,” he said.
While CMB.TECH, part of Saverys family-controlled CMB Shipping, believes both gaseous and liquid hydrogen are viable solutions for coastal and inland water shipping, deep-sea shipping is a little trickier.
“When we moveto deep-sea shipping, hydrogen as a gas doesn’t work; we just cannot carry enough of it, so, we need to look for another carrier,” said Mr Turner.
CMB.Tech believes the solution is ammonia.
To develop suitable hydrogen propulsion concepts for its deep-sea ships, CMB.Tech has taken a methodical, pragmatic approach, starting first at the shallow end of the pool, so to speak. Its initial foray into hydrogen propulsion began with the passenger shuttle Hydroville. This was followed by a Japanese passenger ferry, Hydro Bingo, a crew transfer vessel, Hydrocat for the offshore wind market, and most recently the harbour tug HydroTug, which operates at the Port of Antwerp.
“With these we slowly scaled up our use of hydrogen,” said Mr Turner. “Our next big project is a hydrogen coaster, and this will take the technology one step further,” he added.
“We don’t want to be a fuel supplier”
More problematic has been sourcing hydrogen because of the sheer volume of fuel required for a single vesse. “One of our windfarm support vessels will use 200 kg of hydrogen everyday,” said Mr Turner. “Getting that supply to the quayside is a challenge, and a tugboat will use 400 kg a day. It steps up that challenge,” he explained.
CMB is also working with ports to develop a logistics chain to support and bunker its ships.
To advance its ammonia efforts, Mr Turner said CMB.Tech is working with Swiss engine designer Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) on engine technology, and it is already launching ammonia-ready ships, with some 36 vessels on order. But, noted Mr Turner, all these ships will need green ammonia, something that is not available to shipping.
“We don’t want to be a fuel supplier,” he said, “but whilst we are waiting for the chicken and the egg, we are going to supply the chicken. I want someone to give me the egg”.
As a result, CMB will become a fuel supplier itself, with its own hydrogen production plant in Antwerp, as well as sourcing additional supply from Air Liquide.
CMBis building a fuel production plant in Namibia, which will produce green hydrogen in its first phase and then move to ammonia in its second phase.
“Hopefully this will kickstart demand and drive over people into the market,” said Mr Turner.
His message to fuel suppliers was simple: “It’s real. Please can you get out there [and] start delivering the fuels we need at the volumes we need.”
