Under a new memorandum of understanding (MoU), the trio will explore importing liquid hydrogen through the Port of Hamburg for onward transport by road or rail.

KHI is expected to handle supply from liquefaction and shipping – using its liquid hydrogen carrier technology to ship hydrogen from low-cost producers to Europe.

HHLA will look at how to receive, store, and distribute the hydrogen, with Daimler hoping to deploy its fuel cell trucks for transportation.

They say the collaboration could build a model for a European liquid hydrogen supply chain to prove its technical and economic viability.

The firms are also looking for additional organisations to form a consortium spanning the entire hydrogen value chain to support the plans.

“Europe will continue to rely on green energy imports in the future and hydrogen will play a key role here,” said Daimler Truck board member Dr Andreas Gorbach. “The partnership is an important step in this direction.”

With its current high electricity costs, many suggest Europe will struggle to produce enough green hydrogen at competitive costs to meet its decarbonisation targets.

Increasingly, overseas projects in renewables-rich regions are looking to export hydrogen to the continent, claiming it could beat domestic production despite increased transport and storage costs.

With a low volumetric density, unless compressed or liquefied, hydrogen requires a substantial amount of storage space and is prone to leakage. Carriers such as ammonia have been hailed as potential transportation solutions.

However, KHI has been pursuing liquid hydrogen transportation. In 2021, the Japanese major shipped hydrogen from Australia to Japan on board its self-developed Suiso Frontier liquid hydrogen carrier.

Liquid hydrogen shipping has been called into question due to its potential costs and challenges associated with boil-off and cryogenic storage.

However, supporters argue liquid hydrogen offers efficiency advantages over carriers like ammonia, which require an energy-intensive cracking process to release pure hydrogen.

Kei Nomura, KHI’s head of its Hydrogen Strategy Division, said the firm remained committed to expanding the use of liquid hydrogen.

“We are very pleased to be working with HHLA and Daimler Truck to explore the feasibility of establishing an international supply chain for liquid hydrogen in Europe,” Nomura said.