The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has released a comprehensive report evaluating hydrogen’s role in revolutionizing maritime fuel.
The report, entitled “Exploring Hydrogen’s Viability in Maritime Fuel,” provides an in-depth analysis of the feasibility of hydrogen use in the shipping sector. It focuses on various aspects, including hydrogen’s characteristics, environmental impact, availability, appropriateness for marine use, and the costs and advancements necessary for its implementation in maritime settings.
The maritime industry faces substantive challenges, many of which are driven by increasingly stricter air emissions and climate legislation as its practitioners navigate a course towards decarbonisation. Among the broad spectrum of technologies and fuel solutions being considered, hydrogen that is produced with renewable energy (green hydrogen) has been identified as a fuel that could offer a ‘near-zero’ carbon solution on a well-to-wake basis.
While shipping has limited experience using hydrogen as a fuel and some of the key technologies (such as engines) remain under development, there is sufficient land-based experience with its production and use that would serve as a sound basis for the transition to a marine fuel.
There are some barriers, such as hydrogen’s low energy density (which would increase the storage needs onboard a ship), the cost of the equipment and significant need to expand the global capacity to distribute and produce green hydrogen. In the end, hydrogen-fuelled vessels may prove to be a more appropriate solution for short-sea shipping rather than deep-sea. By examining the current production capacity for hydrogen, the existing regulatory landscape, fuel storage options, supply and power generation technologies – along with techno-economic analyses and risk-based case studies – this study has identified the potential for adopting hydrogen as a marine fuel.
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