Monday 26 October 2020
Liquid hydrogen-powered ship granted €8m EU funding
A hydrogen-powered ship and infrastructure project has secured €8 million (£7.2m) in funding from the EU’s Research and Innovation programme Horizon programme.
The HySHIP project involves the development of a demonstration vessel running on liquid green hydrogen (LH2), an LH2 supply chain and a bunkering platform.
The ship, which is claimed to be the first of its kind vessel to enter commercial service, will be operated by the Norwegian maritime industry group Wilhelmsen and will distribute liquid hydrogen (LH2) to hydrogen hubs along the Norwegian coast.
The Topeka vessel will be built with a combination of 1,000kW battery capacity and a 3MW proton-exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cell.
The consortium of 13 partners behind the project includes among others Equinor, the French industrial gases supplier Air Liquide and Strathclyde University.
Vice President of Special Projects Per Brinchmann at Wilhelmsen commented: "Topeka will be our first step towards scalable LH2 fuelled maritime operations. We shall create a full LH2 infrastructure and commercial ecosystem, while at the same time removing yearly some 25,000 trucks from the roads."
Frida Eklöf Monstad, Vice President Logistics and Emergency Response in Equinor, said: "This zero-emission vessel service will also be a valuable demonstrator of the technology development supporting Equinor’s ambitions to move cargo from road to sea and to halve emissions from our maritime activities in Norway by 2030.”
