NEWS

HD Hyundai Mipo is leveraging Korea’s industrial convergence regulatory sandbox to strengthen its competitiveness in securing orders for liquefied CO₂ (LCO₂) carriers.

The company announced on October 22 that its proposal titled “Filling liquefied CO₂ onto ships using tank lorries,” which it submitted to the regulatory sandbox, has been approved by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Industrial Convergence Regulatory Special Case Review Committee and will take effect on Wednesday, the 5th of next month.

Under the current High-Pressure Gas Safety Control Act, vehicle-mounted tanks are not classified as facilities for filling or storing high-pressure gas. However, under this new regulatory sandbox exemption, the use of tank lorries to fill ships’ cargo tanks has been approved on an exceptional basis.

As a result, the need to install a separate filling terminal at an independent site and move ships to that terminal for sea trials will be eliminated. This is expected to reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and improve schedule reliability.

In practice, during sea trials for four 22,000 m³ liquefied CO₂ carriers currently under construction, HD Hyundai Mipo plans to fill liquefied CO₂ into the ships’ cargo tanks at the shipyard quay. This will be done using flexible hoses and a mobile manifold developed in-house, allowing a single ship to be filled simultaneously by multiple tank lorries.

The market outlook for liquefied CO₂ carriers is also bright. According to Norway-based classification society DNV, the volume of CO₂ captured worldwide each year is projected to increase from 210 million tons in 2030 to 1.3 billion tons in 2050. As most of this CO₂ is expected to be transported by sea, orders for liquefied CO₂ carriers are forecast to continue rising.

An HD Hyundai Mipo representative said, “Liquefied CO₂ carriers are emerging as a new source of revenue in the medium-sized ship market. By using this regulatory exemption to enhance our order competitiveness, we aim to take the lead in the liquefied CO₂ carrier market.”

The demonstration exemption will apply only to the quay within HD Hyundai Mipo’s shipyard and will remain valid for two years from the start of the project. If the relevant laws and regulations have not been revised before the demonstration period ends, the exemption can be extended for an additional two years.