Wärtsilä and Hycamite TCD Technologies, a privately held Finnish business that specializes in the development of a ground-breaking technology for creating clean hydrogen and solid carbon from methane, have engaged into a cooperative development agreement.
Together, the two businesses will make it possible for marine vessels to produce hydrogen from LNG at a low cost. By the middle of 2023, the concept design will be completed, and the prototype testing unit will follow in the second half of 2024.
Combining Wärtsilä’s LNGPac Fuel Gas Supply System with the concept will enable production of hydrogen onboard while utilizing the current LNG infrastructure. The current lineup of fuel-flexible Wärtsilä dual-fuel (DF) engines can lower the ship’s overall carbon dioxide and methane slip emissions by creating hydrogen onboard and mixing it with LNG. Alternately, the hydrogen might be utilized in onboard fuel cells.
Solid carbon is the process’s by-product, which can be kept and maintained onboard more simply than carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the by-product produced by conventional processes. High-grade allotropes of carbon, such as industrial graphite and carbon nanotubes, are present in the manufactured carbon, providing a potential supplementary revenue source.
The method is theoretically applicable to all vessels using LNG fuel. This method permits even carbon-negative power generation on board ships when bioLNG is used.
