Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries has signed a contract with Japan Suiso Energy to build the world’s largest liquefied hydrogen carrier, with a capacity of 40,000 cubic metres.
The vessel will be constructed at Kawasaki’s Sakaide Works in Kagawa Prefecture in western Japan.
Japan Suiso Energy is the operator for a government-backed project under the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization’s Green Innovation Fund. The programme aims to demonstrate ship-to-base loading and unloading of liquefied hydrogen and conduct ocean-going trials by the fiscal year ending March 2031.
Kawasaki built the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier, the 1,250-cubic-metre Suiso Frontier, in 2021, and took part in a Japan–Australia pilot project the following year to demonstrate the safe export of liquefied hydrogen to Japan.
The company said the new vessel is designed to meet expected global hydrogen demand in the 2030s and support the development of a commercial hydrogen supply chain.
Kawasaki has previously said it aims to replicate its success as a major liquefied natural gas tanker producer in the hydrogen sector, positioning the fuel as a key enabler of industrial decarbonisation and the global energy transition.
