Lomar Shipping set to trial ‘innovative’ hydrogen dual-fuel system

Under development by San-Francisco-based Newlight, the system would allow an engine to operate on a dual-fuel marine diesel and hydrogen regime. Designed to be retrofitted, it would allow ships already in operation to achieve a gradual CO2 emissions reduction in compliance with IMO and other regulation. This would enable green hydrogen to perform a function similar to that of biofuel insetting, one of the main drivers for the high uptake of biofuel in the shipping industry over recent months.

Overcoming a major hurdle to hydrogen adoption today – the chicken-and-egg problem of vessels being built to burn fuels unavailable in quantity – a hydrogen dual-fuel equipped vessel would have the flexibility to take on a proportion of hydrogen during bunkering, or not, depending on what is available.

A pilot installation on a Lomar vessel is set for the summer, said Stylianos Papageorgiou, MD of Lomarlabs. “We believe in accelerating progress through energy efficiency improvements, emissions treatment and leveraging clean energy sources, always with a focus on maintaining costs at sensible levels. Newlight’s solution fits right into this approach.” Almost all engines combine hydrogen and oxygen under pressure to generate heat and thermal expansion, meaning that internal combustion is an exercise in delivering as much of each of these two into a cylinder as possible.

Fuels are formed of a combination of hydrogen chemical bound to a carrier, such as carbon or nitrogen. Cleaner combustion can be achieved by increasing the ratio of hydrogen to other elements – methane, for example, one of the cleanest, is CH4, methanol is CH3OH. By mixing diesel with hydrogen before burning, drastic improvements in fuel efficiency could be made. Newlight reports that up to 30% emissions reduction have been demonstrated in workshop trials, and some 20% is expected on average in operation.

This would be enough for Newlight’s hydrogen dual-fuel system to compete on performance with established onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS) systems, which drastically increase vessel fuel consumption for a similar CO2 emissions saving of up to 30%.

“Decarbonisation isn’t about waiting for the perfect fuel, it’s about acting now with every viable tool at our disposal,” said Mr Papageorgiou. “Newlight’s dual-fuel retrofit technology promises an immediate, scalable and cost-effective way to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

“This is exactly the kind of practical innovation that will bridge the gap between today’s operational realities and the long-term vision of a net-zero maritime industry.”