New fuel cell technology testing under way for marine industry
Provider of power solutions for the marine and energy industries Wärtsilä has installed a Wärtsilä Fuel Cell (WFC) 20 unit on board the Undine, a car carrier owned by Swedish maritime transport company Wallenius Lines and managed by Wallenius Marine, with the aim of testing a fuel cell in a marine environment.
The Undine, with the WFC 20 unit installed, sailed from the Port of Bremerhaven, in Germany, on May 1. The ship’s destination is the UK and, after stopping in the US and Sweden, will dock on October 31, says Wärtsilä director of fuel cells Erkko Fontell.
The company says that the validation process on the journey will provide feedback and information for the future development of technology for marine environment applications.
The fuel unit will, during the test period, provide auxiliary power to the vessel, while producing almost no emissions. “This project is an important step towards more environment-friendly shipping and cleaner seaborne transportation,” Wärtsilä reports.
Experts are on board the vessel and Wärtsilä have trained Wallenius personnel and its own service personnel to operate the system. The company has also established data transfer between the vessel and a technical team to follow the operation of the unit, says Fontell.
The fuel cell, which has a nominal output of 20 kW, is based on planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology and is fuelled by methanol since it can be reformed to a composition suitable for the unit, he adds.
Methanol, a commonly used liquid in the oil and process industries, can be produced from natural gas or from renewable raw materials such as gasifiable biomass.
“The development and validation of the SOFC technology in the marine environment is one of the key outcomes of the project,” he says.
The initiative, which started on November 1, 2006, is the result of a joint project by the Methanol Fuelled Auxiliary Power Unit (Methapu) consortium.
The participants are Finland-based Wärtsilä; Wallenius Marine, of Sweden; independent assurance services company Lloyd’s Register Group, in the UK; risk management company Det Norske Veritas, in Norway; and the University of Genoa, in Italy. All members of this consortium are globally active in fuel cell system integration, sustainable shipping, classification work or environmental assessment, says Fontell.
The principal aim of the Methapu project has been to validate and demon- strate new technologies for global shipping that can reduce the environmental impact of vessels.
A further aim is to establish the necessary international regulations for the use of methanol on board commercial vessels, and to allow the use of methanol as a marine fuel.
Other strategic aims are validating marine-compatible methanol-running SOFC tech- nology and enabling future research activities on larger marine-compatible SOFC units and establishing a methanol-based economy, explains Fontell.
“The development of sustainable sea transportation is a long-term target, to which Wallenius Marine is committed. The Methapu project supports the vision by providing the opportunity to use a new renewable marine fuel. Wärtsilä’s expertise in SOFC technology provides a solid platform from which to gain experience for the future,” says Wallenius Marine president Per Croner.
The estimated cost of this project is €2-million, €1-million of which has been funded by the European Union. The project also is part of the European Community Sixth Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration.
The project, initially planned for completion on April 30, 2009, experienced technical difficulties owing to the fuel cell being developed on a new type of technology, as well as the supply and reforming of the metha- nol, which took up more time than expected, and the project was granted an 18-month extension. The company now expects the project to be completed by October 31, says Fontell.
In addition to methanol, Wärtsilä’s fuel cells can efficiently use various gases as fuel and produce almost no nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide and particulate emissions harmful to the environment. The fuel cell technology will offer additional benefits to the shipping industry, where international emission regulations are becoming increasingly stringent, the company states.
The International Maritime Organisation and various local authorities define the emission regulations for the marine indus- try. As fuel cell technology provides clean emissions, it will meet any foreseen emission regulations, he believes.
The additional benefits will be efficiency, no noise and no vibra- tions. Fontell also says that, although it has not been proven, there is potential for the techno- logy to lower manufacturing costs, provide good reliability and lower the levels of servicing requirements.
The development of fuel cell technology is a part of Wärtsilä’s long-term product development, aimed at supplementing the company’s product portfolio. The development of environment-friendly and sustainable energy production technologies is an essential part of Wärtsilä’s strategy.
“We want to further develop fuel cell technology and introduce it to the commercial markets in the next few years. We also want to increase the power output of the units, and the next step is a 50-kW power range and later a 250-kW range,” says Fontell.
