Demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell-powered inland or short sea shipping

This topic aims at demonstrating, in an operational environment, fuel cell hydrogen based waterborne transport ecosystem, showing the feasibility and benefits of integrating hydrogen and hydrogen carriers into this hard to abate sector. The overarching goal is to address the ability to safely bunker hydrogen (pure or in terms of a hydrogen carrier), to store it on board and to consume it for propulsion in a waterborne environment.

Proposals should address the demonstration of fuel cell hydrogen powered inland or short sea vessels. Internal combustion engines are excluded.

In addition, proposals should address the following:

• Development and demonstration of a hydrogen ecosystem with at least one port including hydrogen (carrier) logistics, and suitable integrated refuelling/bunkering solution;
• Provision of zero-carbon fuels (hydrogen or its carriers), shore-based infrastructures;
• Assessment of the health hazards and other risks associated with the use of the respective fuel in vessels;
• Selection of a suitable ship segment and technical concept for the demonstration activity, including an adequate propulsion power level for the application;
• Integration and design activities for using the chosen combination of power conversion and storage technologies (e.g. fuel cells and batteries) including hybrid solutions and smart energy/power management systems;
• Assessing and describing how the selected concept represents a modular architecture of the power system, validating the compatibility for scaling up of the power rating to MW scale;
• Development of respective novel BoP configurations encountering various hydrogen carriers, as well as possible on-board carrier-dehydrogenation/generation options;
• Integrate the FC powertrain and the hydrogen / hydrogen-based storage on-board a vessel;
• Integration of the chosen on-board storage solutions below the vessel deck, or swappable fuel tank containers on deck appropriate for a scale of several hundred of kilos to tons.
• Minimal on-board energy storage for operational autonomy of 48h (2 days);
• Operate the vessel under realistic end-user conditions for a duration of at least 1.000 hours;
• Ensuring safe vessel operation and contributing to further develop the regulatory framework;
• Secure the port(s) approval processes for hydrogen / hydrogen-based fuels bunkering and construct the bunkering infrastructure solution;
• Establish the technical and economic feasibility for replication and scale up in European ports.
• Enable standardisation & regulation of the technology on vessels and within ports to create the right regulation framework for the investment in vessels and infrastructure;
• Provide instrumentation and generate detailed open access data for all relevant operations including hydrogen storage, bunkering, sailing etc. for development of new generation of modelling tools and protocols.
• Assessment and quantification of the environmental impact of the demonstration itself (in terms of reduction on GHG emissions during demonstration) as well as the potential GHG emission reduction in Europe upon a full deployment of the solution in the selected maritime transport segment. Such issues shall already be covered in the proposal phase, to facilitate a fair and adequate evaluation.

Proposals are encouraged to consider, for the vessels to be demonstrated, system prototypes developed in previous project related to the application of FC modules to heavy duty applications such as e.g. Standard-Sized Heavy-duty Hydrogen (StaSHH).

Proposals should build on and develop synergies with former EU-funded projects such as RH2IWER, FLAGSHIPS, H2Ports or EVERYWH2ERE, as well as with relevant Zero Emission Waterborne Transport Partnership (ZEWT) activities, focusing on remaining gaps not covered in these projects. In particular, duplication with the activities in the RH2IWER project should be avoided.

Proposals are encouraged to explore synergies with the Zero Emission Waterborne Transport (ZEWT) Partnership, specially on the activities regarding the integration of the FC powertrain and the hydrogen / hydrogen-based storage on-board a vessel. Moreover, applicants are encouraged to explore synergies with other programmes, especially with funding from CEF-T The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport (CEF-T).

This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen and fuel cell systems and components.

It is expected that Guarantees of origin (GOs) will be used to prove the renewable character of the hydrogen that is used. In this respect consortium may seek out the purchase and subsequent cancellation of GOs from the relevant Member State issuing body and if that is not yet available the consortium may proceed with the issuance and cancellation of non-governmental certificates (e.g CertifHy).

Proposals should provide a preliminary draft on ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation.

For additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2.

Activities are expected to start at TRL 5 and achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project - see General Annex B.

At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 6.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

Purchases of equipment, infrastructure or other assets used for the action must be declared as depreciation costs. However, for the following equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks): vessels, fuel cell system, on-board hydrogen storage and other components needed in a hydrogen fuel cell hydrogen vessel, costs may exceptionally be declared as full capitalised costs.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2024 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2024 which apply mutatis mutandis.