Liquid hydrogen ship to sail between Oslo and Rotterdam under EU-backed project

An EU-Funded liquid hydrogen (LH2) maritime demonstration project aims to deploy Samskip’s Seashuttle container ship on a route between Norway and the Netherlands.

Under the HyShip initiative, one of Samskip’s two 135m vessels, powered by a 3.2MW liquid hydrogen fuel cell system, will operate the freight corridor between Oslo and Rotterdam.

The HyShip project, which involves start-up LH2 Shipping, aims to develop operational and technical solutions in commercial shipping, including fuel supply and bunkering infrastructure.

It follows Samskip from Norwegian Hydrogen for the Seashuttle vessels earlier this year, planning operation between the ports by Q2 2027.

However, the intended fuel source, Rjukan’s 25MW LH2 project, is not set to come online until 2028. The source of hydrogen for any operation prior to this remains unclear.

While details of further projects funded by HyShip also remain to be revealed, it has received close to €8m ($9.15m) in EU Commission funding and involves an 11-strong consortium of maritime players, including Maritime Cleantech, LMG Marin, and DNV SE.

H2 View has reached out for information around fuel sourcing and HyShip-funded demonstrations.

Ivan Oestvik, CEO of LH2 Shipping, said the project combines valuable expertise supporting the “future rollout and broader adoption” of LH2 across the maritime sector.

While LH2 offers efficiency advantages of carriers like ammonia, which requires an energy-intensive cracking process to release pure hydrogen, it is criticised for the complexity and expense of transporting it over long distances.

With an extremely low boiling point (-253ºC), the molecule requires cryogenic storage to prevent potential boil-off losses.