European short-sea shipping is emerging as one of the leaders in
the development of environmentally-friendly next-generation shipping. Several projects
are underway in Norway focusing on all-electric short-sea vessels to transport
goods. Dutch shipping company Van Dam Shipping working with the European
division of India’s giant steel company Tata Steel announced plans for the next
step in short-sea, a hydrogen-powered, zero-emission vessel to transport steel
products.
The
two companies announced that they are working to develop a hydrogen-powered
vessel that will be able to transport approximately 5,000 tons of cargo. It
would be the first vessel of its kind, with the companies noting that
hydrogen-powered shipping currently mainly consists of inland vessels and small
ferries. The industry continues to make progress with the designs for hybrid,
partly on hydrogen, and fully powered by hydrogen vessels.
“I
am delighted to be working with Tata Steel on the delivery of a zero-emission
vessel,” said Jan van Dam, Director of Van Dam Shipping. “Our relationship with
Tata Steel goes back many years and one of our ships loads steel in IJmuiden
every week. This partnership will intensify our relationship and contribute to
our energy transition goals as a company and the shipping industry.”
Van Dam is a
small, family-run business that has eight cargo vessels, operating in Northern
Europe, including a specialization in Finland on the Saimaa canal. The
company has a history as an innovator seeking environmental solutions including
at the end of 2019 installing a wind propulsion system on their 3,600
DWT general cargo vessel Ankie.
The
shipping company supplies services to Tata Steel Netherlands, which is one of
the largest steel producers in Europe. Van Dam transports products for Tata,
including a portion of the two million tons of coils of steel Tata ships every
year in Europe. Tata looks to use green shipping in the future to transport its
coils as part of an overall commitment to producing completely climate-neutral
steel by 2050, by switching to production with hydrogen instead of coal.
“We
want to be a sustainable company on all fronts. This not only means that we
will be making green steel using hydrogen in the future, but we are also
looking at how we can use hydrogen even more. For example, to make our
logistics more sustainable,” said Cem Ugur, Head of Chartering and Operations
for Tata Steel.
The companies
are targeting 2024 for the launch of the hydrogen-powered vessel. The aim is
that the hydrogen-powered ship can sail 100% CO 2 emission-free and thus save
about 3000 tons of CO 2 per year compared to a ship that sails on gas oil and
fuel oil.