Hydrogen-fueled marine transportation

Due to rising social awareness of the environment, the shipping industry is becoming more and more visible on the political agenda, forcing the industry to be more environmentally friendly and energy efficient than in the past. A technology under development is the use of fuel cell (FC) systems for energy conversion on board. FCs meet specific requirements for marine applications: clean, quiet, small, modular, and efficient. The maritime industry is aware of the benefits of FCs for future ship designs. In addition to civil use in the merchant fleet or pleasure crafts, where the designers look for low emissions, military uses in which low signatures are the main focus also require the advantages of FC systems. Therefore, FC systems have great potential for power conversion use on board vessels. The key issue is that value to customers must be adequate in order to force the implementation of this technology. The chapter gives an overview of the current status of FC technology in shipping, existing demonstration projects, and future trends. Following the boundary conditions for the use of FC systems in ships, the requirements for marine FC systems, suitable FC types, fuel storage, and an overview of the integration of this technology on board are discussed.