The Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association (ZESTA) has unveiled the Global Liquid Hydrogen Alliance, a new international platform aimed at advancing pure green hydrogen and liquid hydrogen as deployable, scalable zero-emission fuels for international maritime shipping.
At IMO’s MEPC 84, the Net Zero Framework for shipping was left unaltered as the basis for future talks, cementing the prospect of the industry’s first globally binding carbon price.
At the same time, over 600 global hydrogen projects, mostly in Europe and backed by more than €175bn in committed capital, have exposed a gap in architecture rather than ambition. ZESTAs says the Alliance exists to coordinate the organisations ready to build a real‑world LH2 value chain faster and at scale.
“Zero‑emission shipping is already underway. The investment is moving, the regulation is coming, and the early movers are setting the terms,” said Madadh MacLaine, Global Liquid Hydrogen Alliance co‑founder and secretary general of ZESTA. “The liquid hydrogen market is projected to grow from $9bn today to $19bn by 2032 and over $54bn from 2037 onward, with liquefaction capacity more than quadrupling. The Global Liquid Hydrogen Alliance exists because LH2 needs to be at the core of that transition, at scale, not catching up to it.”
The Alliance is distinct from broader hydrogen initiatives by focusing strictly on pure green hydrogen, aiming for a neutral, transparent evidence base and pushing the commercial and policy coordination needed to make LH2 bankable.
It will operate around four priorities: building a global “ground truth” for LH2 technology, safety, logistics and costs; positioning LH2 as a primary energy carrier for long‑range, energy‑dense shipping; accelerating market creation and international alignment; and turning policy momentum into corridor‑level deployment via ports, vessel integration, and supply‑chain partnerships.
LH2 is already industrially mature, with more than six decades of operational history, a global market worth about $45bn, and liquefaction capacity of around 600 tonnes per day.
Containerised LH2 transport in standard 40‑foot cryogenic containers is commercially operational under existing rules. The main deployment gap is geographic and coordination-driven: Europe, set to account for roughly a third of global hydrogen demand, currently has only about 30 tonnes per day of liquefaction capacity.
“Maritime navigation has the potential to become one of the leading sectors in the adoption of hydrogen technologies,” said Karima El Kmiti of Dhamma Sea. “Real‑world projects are already demonstrating that hydrogen is a viable solution for maritime decarbonisation and the future of cleaner mobility.”
