Horizon Europe – Hydrogen PEM fuel cell system retrofit to make marine transport more ECO-friendly

Press Release: A 36-month EU funded project aiming to develop technology to retrofit a 2.4 MW fuel cell system and swappable hydrogen storage onto a Bitumen carrier.

Eight project partners from three European countries (Norway, Sweden and Netherlands) got together in Lysaker, Norway, to launch the HyEkoTank project and discuss the procedures that the consortium will follow during its implementation period as well as the work to be carried out the upcoming period. The HyEkoTank is a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme with a lifespan of thirty-six months.

About the Project

HyEkoTank consortium has identified the need of optimised hydrogen fuel cell solutions for maritime applications. The consortium was built to merge key knowledge and experience in hydrogen, fuel cells and the maritime industry and propose a solution to cost-effectively retrofit fleets to significantly reduce their GHG emissions.

HyEkoTank project intends to develop and in 2024 install a retrofit solution to transform the existing fleet and accelerate the achievement of climate neutrality of both sea-going and inland waterway waterborne transport. The proposed solution comprises:

A standardised and easy-to-integrate 40ft ISO container including a 2.4 MW fuel cell system, hydrogen fuel gas conditioning, air filtration systems, power converters, battery storage and automation system.
A containerised, 350 bar, compressed hydrogen storage with 4000 kg capacity with type approval to perform hydrogen refuelling by swapping of containers using cranes.

Besides that, the project will support the delivery of other relevant results, namely:

A feasibility assessment and a model to optimise the hydrogen supply chain to ports
Concept designs to standardise the technology to be easy to install in any ship independently on its operations.