Future Proof Shipping (FPS) has appointed Koedood Marine Group to supply a complete PEM fuel cell system to retrofit the Maas inland container vessel to hydrogen power. The Koedood system will comprise fuel cell stacks and technology from Nedstack. Sealing its commitment this month, FPS gave the green light to Holland Shipyards Group (HSG) to procure the complete PEM fuel cell system from Koedood.
“The maritime knowledge and expertise of the Koedood Group, together with the fuel cell capabilities of Nedstack, provide us with an optimized product we can be confident in. It helps that we are all on the same page: collaborating to create a more sustainable future for the inland waterways in Europe,” remarked Fokke van der Veen, director of operations at FPS.
Koedood will build three 275kW fuel cell units and subcontract its partner company and stack provider of choice, Nedstack, to supply the fuel cell stacks for each of the fuel cell units as part of the companies’ co-development partnership for inland navigation. During the retrofit later this year, HSG will install the fuel cell units onboard the Maas. The 110 x 11.45m inland container vessel will be retrofitted at HSG’s yard in Hardinxveld in 2021. The plan is for it to be zero emissions and hitting the water on 100% hydrogen power by the end of this year.
The PEM fuel cell system is necessary to convert hydrogen into electricity and will be installed in the cargo space of the Maas. It will be triple redundant with 825kW capacity to supply propulsion and auxiliary power.
“Adding marine-certified hydrogen fuel cell systems to our hybrid ship propulsion capabilities did not come easily. We are proud to take this next step with FPS and spearhead hydrogen technology into the maritime domain. With our can-do attitude we are confident there will be more vessels to follow soon,” concluded Gertjan de Gelder, sales manager at Koedood Marine Group.
Post-retrofit, the Maas will carry shipping container cargo between Rotterdam and an inland terminal near Antwerp and is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,000 tonnes CO2 e annually.
