Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RH2IWER (Renewable Hydrogen for Inland Waterway Emission Reduction)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-08-31
Hydrogen in inland shipping is in its infancy but has the potential to decarbonize a significant part of the sector. Hydrogen-based energy carriers will also play a significant role in decarbonizing short-sea and ocean shipping. For this to happen, new maritime value chains – encompassing everything from hydrogen production and storage, bunkering infrastructure, and fuel cell technology to enable the on-board use of hydrogen must develop in conjunction with each other. To meet the EU’s emission targets and for the sector to stay competitive compared to road and rail (which are beginning to decarbonize rapidly), the pace of change in shipping needs to pick up drastically. In 2018, ships calling at EU and European Economic Area ports emitted around 140 million tonnes of CO2. This represents 18 % of the global CO2 emissions from international shipping; and inland navigation accounted for 13.5% of the EU’s GHG emissions. SO2 emissions from ships calling at EU, Icelandic and Norwegian ports were 1.63 million tonnes in 2019, some 16% of global SO2 emissions from international shipping. This data shows that making inland navigation climate positive will have a significant impact in enabling the EU to reach its climate goals.
Shipping, like other hard-tech, asset-intensive legacy industries is slow in taking up new technologies. The industry’s structural disadvantages like split incentives (wherein the shipowner who makes the investments in new technologies to reduce fuel consumption do not reap the benefit of paying less for fuel) further exacerbate the complexity and slow pace of the transition. It has been quite common to hear shipowners say ‘I want to see (living) proof of concept’ before considering changing the technology on board a vessel. Most typically, ship owners want to see the technology in action at a scale relevant for their vessel and operations. While this might seem overly cautious to outsiders, it is not unfounded – making novel technologies ‘maritime-ready’ is a substantial step beyond readying them for operations on land. And that is not only in making the technology more resilient and capable of withstanding harsher environments, but also in terms of regulatory readiness.
The ambition of the RH2IWER project is to create a solid basis for the acceleration of hydrogen fuel cell powered vessels, a basis on which shipowners a can significantly reduce their environmental footprint and remove emissions from their entire fleet. In order to push the field beyond the state of the art, RH2IWER will create design guidelines for mobile and standardized containerized fuel cell system containers. This will open opportunity for pay-per-use or leasing concepts, moving financial risks and investments from vessel owners towards technical and financial service companies. It will create a competitive market in which operators and shipyards can freely choose from different suppliers, creating best value for money. This standardization will also lower development costs over time, increase leverage in value chains and reduce integration time.
The RH2IWER project will also make the next giant step by introducing 6 emission free cargo-vessels to the European inland waterways pushing the development journey from demonstration to commercial operation. Until today, the application of fuel cells has focused on container vessels and push barges, RH2IWER will develop designs and demonstrations for chemical tanker vessels and bulk vessels. By doing so, RH2IWER will pave the way for other ship owners to follow. Lastly, the RH2IWER project through its 6 demonstration vessels will stimulate the hydrogen supply and bunkering development and possibilities. Containerized and swappable hydrogen supply solution offer a new bunkering solution for fast and efficient fueling of hydrogen to inland waterway vessels, as an alternative to traditional bunkering methods, it provides a faster way to market for hydrogen powered vessels without large investments in expensive bunkering infrastructure. The swappable hydrogen containers will also have a market in for other vessel types and even for land-based solutions in connection with the containerized fuel cell solutions.
Shipping, like other hard-tech, asset-intensive legacy industries is slow in taking up new technologies. The industry’s structural disadvantages like split incentives (wherein the shipowner who makes the investments in new technologies to reduce fuel consumption do not reap the benefit of paying less for fuel) further exacerbate the complexity and slow pace of the transition. It has been quite common to hear shipowners say ‘I want to see (living) proof of concept’ before considering changing the technology on board a vessel. Most typically, ship owners want to see the technology in action at a scale relevant for their vessel and operations. While this might seem overly cautious to outsiders, it is not unfounded – making novel technologies ‘maritime-ready’ is a substantial step beyond readying them for operations on land. And that is not only in making the technology more resilient and capable of withstanding harsher environments, but also in terms of regulatory readiness.
The ambition of the RH2IWER project is to create a solid basis for the acceleration of hydrogen fuel cell powered vessels, a basis on which shipowners a can significantly reduce their environmental footprint and remove emissions from their entire fleet. In order to push the field beyond the state of the art, RH2IWER will create design guidelines for mobile and standardized containerized fuel cell system containers. This will open opportunity for pay-per-use or leasing concepts, moving financial risks and investments from vessel owners towards technical and financial service companies. It will create a competitive market in which operators and shipyards can freely choose from different suppliers, creating best value for money. This standardization will also lower development costs over time, increase leverage in value chains and reduce integration time.
The RH2IWER project will also make the next giant step by introducing 6 emission free cargo-vessels to the European inland waterways pushing the development journey from demonstration to commercial operation. Until today, the application of fuel cells has focused on container vessels and push barges, RH2IWER will develop designs and demonstrations for chemical tanker vessels and bulk vessels. By doing so, RH2IWER will pave the way for other ship owners to follow. Lastly, the RH2IWER project through its 6 demonstration vessels will stimulate the hydrogen supply and bunkering development and possibilities. Containerized and swappable hydrogen supply solution offer a new bunkering solution for fast and efficient fueling of hydrogen to inland waterway vessels, as an alternative to traditional bunkering methods, it provides a faster way to market for hydrogen powered vessels without large investments in expensive bunkering infrastructure. The swappable hydrogen containers will also have a market in for other vessel types and even for land-based solutions in connection with the containerized fuel cell solutions.
During the first periodic report, consortium has performed the following work:
- Setting up the project structure and project management tools
- Created a basis for hydrogen safety work at the project
- Concluded the initial interfaces and design specifications for standardization of FC and H2 containers
- Finishing the preliminary designs for most of the demo vessels
- Working vigorously to set up a business case around the demo vessels which is currently the biggest obstacle for deployment of the vessels in the field.
- Formulating a list of data parameters to be collected from the demo vessels, and alligning this between all demo cases
- Kick-starting the feasibility and replication studies
- Setting up the project structure and project management tools
- Created a basis for hydrogen safety work at the project
- Concluded the initial interfaces and design specifications for standardization of FC and H2 containers
- Finishing the preliminary designs for most of the demo vessels
- Working vigorously to set up a business case around the demo vessels which is currently the biggest obstacle for deployment of the vessels in the field.
- Formulating a list of data parameters to be collected from the demo vessels, and alligning this between all demo cases
- Kick-starting the feasibility and replication studies
Standardization of H2 and FC containers has been singled out by the up-takers of these technologies (shipowners, yards etc.) as one of the most important technical aspects which should be developed in order to form an easier route to integrate these technologies to variety of different kind of vessels. Also, shipowners in general hesitate to make investments decisions on these containers if they are tailor-made for one specific vessel. Instead, they would like to be able to acquire a pool of containers which they can then flexibly use in their fleet in several vessels. Thus, the standardization work in this project (which has been started and initial interfaces and design specifications have been drawn up) will have an significant impact on the deployment of these technologies in larger scale. In order to make continue the standardization work of FC containers, another FC supplier will be needed in the consortium to replace NFCT which went bankrupcy in early 2024. Consortium has identified CTE as potential new partner as they have acquired key assets of NFCT. Consortium ill request an amendment on this after the periodic reporting process.
The first demo vessel of the project, MS Letitia from MTS, will have it's flag ceremony in November 2024. At this time, vessel will have 400 kW of fuel cells onboard (which are funded through German subsidy program). It is planned that in the next few months after the ceremony, extra 600kW of FC units, funded through RH2IWER, will be installed on the vessel and the vessel can start it's operation as fully H2&FC powered during the first half of 2024.
For further success of th other demo cases, shipowners still need to work on the commercial side. Availability and the price of Green Hydrogen are still issues and that combined with end-users hesitance to pay a commision for zero-emission operation is currently hindering the progress with many of the demo vessels. Additional funding through other subsidy programs or through the customer is still needed to realize the demo cases. Shipowners are working hard on this.
The first demo vessel of the project, MS Letitia from MTS, will have it's flag ceremony in November 2024. At this time, vessel will have 400 kW of fuel cells onboard (which are funded through German subsidy program). It is planned that in the next few months after the ceremony, extra 600kW of FC units, funded through RH2IWER, will be installed on the vessel and the vessel can start it's operation as fully H2&FC powered during the first half of 2024.
For further success of th other demo cases, shipowners still need to work on the commercial side. Availability and the price of Green Hydrogen are still issues and that combined with end-users hesitance to pay a commision for zero-emission operation is currently hindering the progress with many of the demo vessels. Additional funding through other subsidy programs or through the customer is still needed to realize the demo cases. Shipowners are working hard on this.