Muhaimin Iqbal
Author

Future Vessels

Advanced Renewable

Tue , 14 May 2024 12:11 WIB

About 71% of the earth's surface is ocean, so the nations that can conquer the ocean in the most effective way are the ones who lead the world. Strong countries colonized weak countries centuries ago, because they could first explore the seas with their large ships.

Now times are different, control of the sea will be synonymous with control of prosperity, because the majority of capital and consumer goods must be transported by ship to reach all corners of the world. It's just that the majority of sea vessels currently still use lower quality fuel than land or air transportation. As a result, ships not only contribute to CO2 emissions but also sulfur emissions which are still very high.

So future ships must be designed to use the cleanest fuel, free of CO2, let alone sulfur. Ideally the fuel is hydrogen, it's just that the majority of hydrogen on the market today is still produced from natural gas (methane) and must be carried in tanks with very high pressure (700 Bar) or very cold (-253 degrees Celsius), as a result hydrogen in the existing conditions are not truly carbon free and are still very expensive, which is due to the logistics.

To conquer maritime challenges and overcome the fuel-related problems mentioned above, the R&D team from the Advanced Renewable Organization (ARO) designed the innards of the future ship, especially in terms of the fuel system.

This ship is designed to use hydrogen fuel, especially biohydrogen, but it does not require very large and very strong tanks to be able to withstand a pressure of 700 bar or a very sophisticated cooling system to maintain a temperature of minus 253 degrees Celsius, this ship's hydrogen fuel is carried in hydrocarbon form as the carrier - so the fuel tank only needs NTP (Normal Temperature and Pressure).

Because it operates on NTP and the total size of the fuel tank, water tank and reforming system is less than 1/2 of the hydrogen tank, this ship can provide more space for cargo or passengers. This ship is also equipped with FlueTrap technology, so that its carbon-neutral CO2 emissions are recaptured back to become the next regenerative hydrocarbon fuels - hydrogen carrier.

With ships that are very fuel efficient and have zero emissions like this, in the future the sea, which makes up 71% of the earth's surface, can become a means of equalizing prosperity throughout the earth's surface. Jalesveva Jayamahe, it is in the sea that we triumph.