Feature 5 | AMERICAS Boxing clever
Using hydrogen for vessel power requires excessive storage space, expertise in handling and reliance on a weak supply chain. So Joi Scientific has developed a system to extract hydrogen directly from the water – and to challenge assumptions regarding marine alternatives to low-sulphur marine fuel
Bill McGill (left), CEO of MarineMax and Traver Kennedy (right), chairman/ of o Sentfi the Hydrogen 2.0 solution is intended to
convert hydrogen from seawater molecules, to serve as a vessel fuel source
92.2m offshore supply vessel Viking Lady in 2010, and the US has already conducted its own hydrogen-fuelled ferry feasibility study in the form of the Sandia National Laboratories-/Red & White Fleet-backed ‘SF-Breeze’ programme (see Ship & Boat International January/ February 2016, page 31). Equally, hydrogen liquefaction plants
be worth recapping some of the better- known, and more commonly discussed, green power options for ships and boats below 100m in length. Battery power? Certainly a feasible
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and increasingly reliable choice, thanks to a combination of plummeting costs and spiralling power capacity – though extensive battery installations can significantly bump up vessel weight, and require adequate management and alarm systems. LNG? Again, this decade has given us examples of LNG tank installation aboard increasingly smaller vessel types (including tugs and fishing boats), but concerns related to safe handling remain, and some global locations still lack a comprehensive gas bunkering infrastructure. Scrubber technology, meanwhile, is
better suited to larger vessels, and, in the case of a retrofit, can necessitate extensive ‘vessel surgery’, resulting in length periods of ship downtime and hefty drydocking costs. And biofuels certainly have potential – though, with the exception of some localised case studies
s we hurtle towards 2020 and its attendant, IMO-driven environmental changes, it might
and applications, it could be argued that these have not proven as popular with boat operators as was initially expected, and availability of supply varies wildly from region to region. What if vessels had the option of
sourcing their energy directly from the water surrounding them, though? It’s a question that has bugged US tech developer Joi Scientific for a number of years – to the extent that the group has developed a disruptive solution, intended to hasten what it describes as “the global transition to a Hydrogen 2.0 economy” – and one in which the potential benefits could extend far beyond the maritime sector.
ydrogen ’ the drabas Hydrogen is not a new phenomenon in shipping: numerous R&D projects have focused on the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology, from the now-concluded, Europe-based FellowSHIP project to more recent initiatives undertaken by Japanese class society ClassNK. Indeed, it was the work conducted by the FellowSHIP partners in the early 2000s that led to the installation of a prototype fuel cell on Eidesvik’s
Ship & Boat International November/December 2018
have made their way into ports – albeit in very small numbers. As with LNG (and possibly more so), gaps exist in the hydrogen supply chain, and the actual process of producing hydrogen can be expensive and time-consuming…as can queuing up in port to bunker it. What’s more, assuming one finds
a location to collect hydrogen fuel, a large amount of onboard storage space is needed to provide adequate range for journeys of significant length. The gas must be carefully handled, requiring a cryogenic system capable of maintaining temperatures lower than -2530C, and its onboard presence can add to overall vessel weight. Perhaps because of these drawbacks,
hydrogen as a fuel source has been relatively slow to catch on in marine circles, and many commentators have refrained from issuing bold statements regarding its potential. However, what if all of these
drawbacks were removed, spanning the entire process, from production and portside availability to onboard handling and storage? Speaking to Ship & Boat International from his office in the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Traver Kennedy, social entrepreneur and chairman/chief executive of Joi Scientific, believes his company’s Hydrogen 2.0 solution can do just that. “Electrolysis has been used to produce
hydrogen from water for the past 100 years,” Kennedy says, reflecting on what
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