Floating hydrogen storage solution launched

• Provaris has launched a gaseous hydrogen floating storage solution called H2Leo, with a design capacity range of 300 to 600 tonnes of hydrogen, expandable to up to 2000 tonnes. (Image; Provaris)

Provaris has launched a gaseous hydrogen floating storage solution called H2Leo, with a design capacity range of 300 to 600 tonnes of hydrogen, expandable to up to 2000 tonnes.

The company said the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has provided ‘Approval In Principal’ for the H2Leo storage solution, enabling greater flexibility and optimization of Provaris’ compressed hydrogen supply chain projects under development in Asia and Europe. The company targets a US$ 0.2 – 0.3 million/ tonne capital cost for the H2Leo, making it significantly cheaper than onshore solutions. The floating storage solution is suitable for various hydrogen supply chains and applications, including bunkering for the maritime sector, intermittent/buffer storage for green hydrogen production, and long-duration storage for excess renewable energy. H2Leo allows for greater flexibility and optimization of Provaris’ compressed hydrogen supply chain projects, reducing the total cost of supply by providing buffer storage at export and / or import locations. The development of H2Leo will run parallel to the remaining engineering and approvals for H2Neo, targeting prototype testing and final class approval later this year, with H2Leo set to become available in 2025.

“Provaris sees the development of a floating storage solution as a natural extension of its compressed hydrogen IP, providing an alternative to current high-cost bulk-scale storage solutions and improving the economics of its existing projects,” said Provaris’ Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Martin Carolan. “We believe a floating storage solution will complement our pipeline of hydrogen production and transport projects and decrease timelines to first revenues and IP commercialization.”

With an increasing demand for clean renewable energy, the ability to store compressed hydrogen is an integral part of the hydrogen supply chain. Over the last 18 months Provaris has been studying ways of leveraging its shipping IP, engineering and Class approvals obtained to date on cargo containment and ship designs, to develop a solution for the industry that is in need of hydrogen storage at scale.

Provaris’ Chief Technical Officer, Per Roed  said the H2Leo is a flexible hydrogen floating storage unit that can be optimized in size, capacity, and operations for different applications. Its SIMOPs capability allows for continuous operations, and it has a large working deck and hull for installing auxiliary systems such as compression and H2 bunkering. Provaris is developing production capacity for cargo tanks that can be operational for floating storage by 2025 which will cater to short-term demand for storage and allow Provaris to gain operational experience and de-risk the continued development of the H2Neo carrier.

Leveraging the FEED-level engineering, safety studies, and Design Approval for the H2Neo carrier received in December 2022, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has provided ‘Approval In Principal’ (AIP) for a compressed hydrogen floating storage solution (the H2Leo class), the first of its kind to receive this level of approval.

The AIP allows for a flexible solution for specific industry applications with a design capacity range of 300 to 600 tonnes of hydrogen. The future development and approvals include expanding the storage capacity from 100 to 2,000 tonnes of hydrogen storage.