Kawasaki Heavy scales back hydrogen ambitions

Kawasaki Heavy Industries is ditching plans to source hydrogen from Australian brown coal, due to delays in construction approvals. Kawasaki Heavy will now source hydrogen on home soil in Japan, and will focus on smaller hydrogen carriers than originally envisaged. 

Kawasaki Heavy, which has been operating the world’s first liquified hydrogen carrier for the past couple of years, had been planning to build ships for this nascent seaborne trade of up to 160,000 cu m. It has now scaled back this size to focus on ships of up to 40,000 cu m. 

Kawasaki Heavy has been operating the Suiso Frontier, a landmark 1,250 cu m hydrogen carrier (pictured) since 2022.