Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Accelerates Development of Fuel Cell Ships

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the shipbuilding holding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, is accelerating the development of next-generation eco-friendly ships by expanding the application of fuel cells from propulsion systems to power generation systems.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering recently announced that it has obtained the Approval in Principle (AIP) for the design of a 'Fuel Cell (SOFC) Power Generation System' from DNV-GL, a Norwegian-German classification society.

This power generation system replaces part of the 3-megawatt (MW) power engine installed on medium-to-large crude oil tankers (Aframax class) with a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). When the fuel cell is later expanded to the entire power source, it can increase power generation efficiency by 43% compared to conventional internal combustion engines.

In particular, it reduces greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions by more than 40% and also decreases emissions of environmental pollutants such as sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), making it recognized as a future eco-friendly energy technology.

Additionally, Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering directly performed integrated design and onboard arrangement of the fuel cell power generation system, improving space utilization by approximately 12%.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) mandates reducing ship greenhouse gas emissions to less than 50% of 2008 levels by 2050.

A representative from Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering stated, “We are cooperating in various ways with shipping companies and equipment manufacturers to respond to strengthening environmental regulations,” and added, “We will proactively secure various eco-friendly ship technologies such as fuel cells to maintain a technological lead.”

Meanwhile, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group obtained the Approval in Principle (AIP) from DNV-GL in March last year for a hybrid electric propulsion system linked with solid oxide fuel cells for crude oil tankers, and earlier this year established a 200KW-scale fuel cell combined power system demonstration center at Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Ulsan headquarters.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.