ICS report predicts future need for 400-ship global hydrogen carrier fleet

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has presented a new report identifying hydrogen demand sectors, demand locations, and the demand-pull timeline. The titled “Turning hydrogen demand into reality: Which sectors come first?” focuses on the potential of clean hydrogen to function as an energy carrier and feedstock to decarbonise multiple sectors, especially hard to abate sectors.

The report identifies that to meet future hydrogen demand, the scale of renewable electricity demand for green hydrogen production is unprecedented and leads to once-in-a-generation opportunities and challenges.

The report seeks to better assess the future supply and demand dynamics of the new zero emission fuels that industrial sectors, including shipping, will use in the coming decades.

The report highlights three economies as the main markets to initially drive hydrogen demand – South Korea, Japan, and the EU. Europe has a target of 20 million tonnes of hydrogen per year by 2030, with half of that volume to come from imported sources. To meet this expected demand of the EU, the fleet will need to increase by up to 300 vessels for the EU2030 target.

"What we are seeing is that the annual hydrogen demand would mean increasing the fleet to transport hydrogen by ship," said Stefan Ulreich, Professor of Energy Economics at Biberach University of Applied Sciences, who co-authored the report. "To just meet a global increase if 30 million tonnes of hydrogen traded worldwide, we could need up to 411 new hydrogen vessels (for long distances) or up to 500 vessels if transported as ammonia."