Tsuneishi Shipbuilding has launched Japan’s first tugboat powered by a hydrogen dual-fuel engine and built using low emission green steel.
The vessel features twin 12-cylinder hydrogen-blended internal combustion engines (ICE) and a storage capacity of approximately 250kg of high-pressure hydrogen gas. If the hydrogen systems fail, the tugboat can operate with only traditional marine fuels too.
JFE Steel Corporation supplied its JGreeX green steel for the vessel’s hull—while not hydrogen-based, the steel is produced using a mass balance approach to achieve significantly reduced CO₂ emissions.
The vessel was developed and built under the Nippon Foundation’s “Zero Emission Ships Project,” which aims to deliver vessels with zero CO2 emissions.
“We will utilise the know-how and design processes we have developed in the construction of hydrogen-fuelled tugboats, which require high power, in the construction of further new vessels,” said Nishijima Takanori, the General Manager of the Design Division and Managing Executive Officer of Tsuneishi.
This isn’t the first hydrogen-based tugboat development making waves globally. Just last month, Vinssen secured approval in principle (AiP) to develop South Korea’s first hydrogen-fuelled tug, powered by a 2,700kW fuel cell.
And back in September, Amogy claimed a world first with its ammonia-powered vessel completing a hydrogen-based voyage down New York’s Hudson River.
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