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.
