Fuel Cell Solution for Marine Applications

With future regulations on the horizon, port authorities and ship owners/operators are looking at alternative propulsion solutions to reduce emission. Fuel cell technology provides an attractive zeroemission solution to generate electric power on board using hydrogen as a fuel. Fuel cell systems are scalable from 200kW to multi-MW providing high efficiency, dispatchable, clean quiet power generation. Several innovative pilot projects are on the way to demonstrate the marine application of this proven technology. Electrification of propulsion systems is advancing, and fuel cell technology provides the opportunity to produce, on board, large quantity of power with zero-emission using hydrogen as a fuel. We will present the value proposition of having a fuel cell power generator on board of an electric vessel while discussing the safety considerations with the fuel cell module and the onboard fuel storage. We will present some of our current fuel cell marine projects and review some of the product development considerations including, system architecture and safety as well as hydrogen supply and on-board fuel storage.