JAXA | Develop the world’s first ship-to-land transfer loading arm for liquid hydrogen
Tokyo Trade Engineering (TEN), Kawasaki Heavy Industries, JAXA, JSTRA:
Under the SIP * 1 promoted by the Cabinet Office, we developed the world’s first ship-to-land transfer loading arm for liquid hydrogen.
【Developed loading arm】
Tokyo Trade Engineering:
Sea transportation by liquefied hydrogen carriers has not been proven worldwide.
We have developed a new loading arm for liquid hydrogen as an important facility to connect ships and bases.
The temperature of liquefied hydrogen is lower than the liquefaction temperature of air.
With existing and LNG loading arms, liquid oxygen is generated on the piping surface during transfer, which may cause a fire.
As a solution to this problem, we have developed a mechanism to maintain “high heat insulation without generating liquid oxygen” for safe operation.
Loading arm main features:
The next three points.
- Vacuum double insulation structure that achieves high insulation
- Swivel joint (tube joint with rotating mechanism) with special high insulation structure with high degree of freedom
- Detachment mechanism to shut off liquid hydrogen safely in emergency
Swivel joint: Emergency release mechanism
JAXA is a rocket fuel development and has knowledge on handling of liquid hydrogen.
Conducted performance tests at JAXA Noshiro Rocket Test Site (Akita Prefecture).
Confirming high safety and durability by performing 400,000 times of repetitive rotation operations.