Hydrogen
Innovation
Whessoe has a history of innovation and being at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of engineering technology. From the “Derwent” locomotive in 1845 and the Sukkur barrage gates in 1928 to the world’s 1st LNG terminal in 1963 and the world’s 1st rectangular modulated LNG tank in 2009, Whessoe has a long track record of advancing technology through invention and design. Today, Whessoe is continuing with its innovation and applying it to the energy transition and the hydrogen economy.
The Energy Transition
As the world looks to move to more sustainable energy, Whessoe is not only applying its experience of cryogenic storage to liquid hydrogen but also providing design consultancy and engineering to allow for optimised solutions across the whole hydrogen and green energy chain. Whether its early engineering design studies for large scale energy transport such as green ammonia from the Middle East to Europe, smaller scale projects to find the optimal design for hydrogen storage (gas or liquid) or the best energy recovery and buffering designs integrated between each link in the hydrogen energy chain, Whessoe can provide both bespoke and proven solutions, whether large scale or local. Supplemented with our understanding and experience of ammonia terminals which Whessoe have been designing for over 50 years, Whessoe is uniquely placed to offer engineering expertise throughout the hydrogen economy.
Liquid Hydrogen Storage
Storing a product at -253°C introduces some significant design challenges. However, in Oct 2023, Whessoe achieved a third-party accreditation of a liquid hydrogen storage tank design to overcome these challenges. Key features are an ultra-low boil-off without internal refrigeration equipment and a size of 40,000m³ to prove very large-scale storage can be done. Special design knowledge for the supporting systems and implementation of insulation comes from Whessoe’s experience and new research to achieve a design over 8 times larger than the current worlds’ largest. However, current research and design work has not stopped as we continue to develop our even larger flat bottom low pressure liquid hydrogen storage system designs to rival even LNG import volumes.
As well as the goal of net zero, Whessoe also understands the transition will also involve smaller steps away carbon emissions rather than an overnight switch. To this affect, Whessoe work with existing energy providers to lower and minimise their carbon footprint and Whessoe have a strong history of investing time and research to help facilitate new technology advances to provide the stepping stones of this transitional journey.