Hanwha, HMM, KR partner on carbon-free ship technologies

Kim Hyoung-seok, third from left, head of Hanwha Power Systems' Maritime Solutions Business Division, poses with Kim Min-kang, fourth from left, HMM’s head of Maritime Office, and Korean Register Senior Vice President Yeon Kyu-jin, fifth from left, after signing a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop new carbon-free propulsion systems for vessels during the 2025 KORMARINE exhibition in Busan, Wednesday. Courtesy of Hanwha Power Systems

Hanwha Group’s four affiliates have signed an agreement with Korea’s largest shipping company and a leading vessel technology organization to promote carbon neutrality in global maritime transportation.

Hanwha Power Systems, a clean energy developer under the mega conglomerate, said on Thursday that the group signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with HMM and Korean Register (KR) in Busan the previous day. The signing took place on the sidelines of KORMARINE 2025, a global maritime exhibition.

The tripartite partnership aims to jointly develop a propulsion system based on fuel cells and ammonia gas turbines for 7,000- to 8,000-ton vessels. They will also develop a hybrid propulsion system using fuel cells and batteries for 2,000-ton feeder vessels. The three parties will cooperate to design the systems, calculate the project’s profitability and develop new types of vessels to utilize the systems.

Each party to the MOU will contribute its expertise to achieve the shared goals. Hanwha — through its affiliates Hanwha Power Systems, Hanwha Ocean, Hanwha Aerospace and Hanwha Systems — will lead the development of comprehensive technological solutions for carbon-free propulsion systems. HMM will verify the systems’ performance using its commercial navigation data, while KR will ensure that the technologies meet regulatory standards, licensing conditions, safety requirements and minimum profitability thresholds.

Hanwha said the partnership will renew the country’s maritime shipping industry to its highest level using “Hanwha’s technology, HMM’s maritime navigation and KR’s tech-vetting capacity.”

It added that its technological advancement was recently recognized when the American Bureau of Shipping issued an approval-in-principle for upgrading 174,000-ton liquefied natural gas tankers with ammonia gas turbines.

Kim Hyoung-seok, head of the Maritime Solutions Business Division at Hanwha Power Systems, said the fuel cell-ammonia gas hybrid turbine propulsion system will “become a new standard for decarbonizing maritime shipping.”

HMM Head of Maritime Office Kim Min-kang said the partnership will “accelerate the transition to a future eco-friendly fleet.”

Yeon Kyu-jin, senior vice president of KR, said, “This project is a paragon of the tripartite partnership that starts from the beginning of research and extends to guaranteeing safety and regulatory standards. It’s going to further cement the global maritime industry’s certification system.”