In 1959, the world’s first LNG carrier, the Methane Pioneer, safely transported a 5,000 cubic meter LNG cargo from Lake Charles, LA in the USA to Canvey Island in the UK, marking the start of LNG shipping. Half a century later, we now have over 600 LNG carriers on the seas, with the average cargo capacity approaching 160,000 cubic meters.
This piece of LNG history came to mind last week with the news that Japan’s ship classification society ClassNK has added the Suiso Frontier, the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier, to its register.
For the sake of comparison, the Methane Pioneer had about four times the cargo capacity of the Suiso Frontier on a volumetric basis. But since LNG has about 2.5 times the energy density of liquid H2, the Methane Pioneer could carry about 10 times as much energy.
