Singapore’s Keppel Corporation has tied up with four industry partners to jointly explore the development of supply infrastructure to bring liquefied hydrogen (LH2) into the Southeast Asia city state to power Keppel’s data centres.
The partners include technology corporate group Kawasaki Heavy Industries, industrial gases and engineering company Linde, transport group Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and Vopak LNG Holding, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal operator.
Keppel said today that the five parties have entered into a memorandum of understanding to jointly study the technical and commercial viability of an LH2 supply chain. This includes studying the feasibility of having a production and liquefaction plant and export terminal at the exporting country, transporting LH2 via ocean-going tankers, as well as an import terminal, storage units and regasification facilities in Singapore.
The study is expected to continue until the end of 2021, after which all parties will decide on their next phase of collaboration. They said they envision the LH2 supply infrastructure benefiting data centre facilities such as the floating data centre park project Keppel Data Centres is pursuing in Singapore.
Interest is expanding worldwide in the use of hydrogen as a clean energy source as its combustion does not emit carbon dioxide, said Keppel. In its liquid state, hydrogen occupies 800 times less volume compared to its gaseous state, allowing for more compact and efficient storage and transportation.
“Keppel Data Centres is working hard to decarbonise our operations. We are actively tapping the capabilities of the Keppel Group as well as working with industry partners to explore a range of green solutions such as hydrogen, floating data centres and CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and sequestration) technologies,” said Wong Wai Meng, CEO of Keppel Data Centres.
Kees van Seventer, President, Vopak LNG, added, “in 2020, we announced our collaboration with Keppel for an LNG and hydrogen feasibility study. The assessments from that study supports our decision to further explore the development of a LH2 supply infrastructure for Singapore. A hydrogen import terminal has the potential to transform industries like the data centre sector.”