NEWS

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HDKSOE) has established a ‘R&D Demonstration Facility for Carbon-neutral Ships’ to capture the future eco-friendly ship market.

HDKSOE announced on April 5 that it recently held a briefing session at the yard of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in Ulsan for the completion of the R&D demonstration facility for carbon-neutral ships. The event was attended by major executives including Kim Sung-joon, CEO of HDKSOE, and Kim Hyung-kwan, President of HD Hyundai Mipo. 

The R&D demonstration facility for carbon-neutral ships is a facility to predict actual performance implemented at sea by building a series of cargo operation systems on land which would be installed on ships.  

While existing demonstration facilities were limited to verifying specific performances such as LNG fuel supply and LNG re-liquefaction facilities, the new demonstration facility for carbon-neutral technology can demonstrate the entire process of cargo transportation from loading to operation and unloading in sequence, allowing for taking a look at the overall operation of the cargo system applying carbon reduction technology. 

HDKSOE plans to verify eco-friendly facilities to be mounted on ships in advance by utilizing newly built demonstration facilities, thereby enhancing the stability of newly developed ship types and green technologies. The first target ship type is a liquefied carbon dioxide carrier. HDKSOE will verify the re-liquefaction facilities and dry ice generation within the cargo hold of the liquefied carbon dioxide carrier which was ordered last year. 

Afterward, by 2026, the scope of target ships and technologies will be further expanded to verify technologies for not only liquefied carbon dioxide carriers, but also future eco-friendly ships such as methanol-powered vessels, multi-gas carriers (CO2, ammonia, LPG, etc.), hybrid electric-powered ships, and hydrogen carriers. 

An official from HDKSOE said, “As environmental regulations are strengthened, various technologies are being developed, but securing the reliability of these technologies is also important,” and “We plan to lead the future eco-friendly ship market by thoroughly verifying the stability of our own future technologies.”