Proving Hydrogen Can Go The Distance For The Marine Industry!

The challenge, though simple, is daunting – to travel over 400 kilometres (216 nautical miles), non-stop from the Netherlands to England, in a boat powered solely by hydrogen!

To achieve this, TU Delft Hydro Motion assembled a team of 23 students, who have designed, developed and manufactured the hydrogen-powered, hydrofoil boat. The plan being to ‘fly’ the hydrofoil equipped boat, across the North Sea in one day, to demonstrate how hydrogen offers the marine industry an emission-free fuel alternative, that is ideally suited for travelling longer distances.

Hydro Motion are no strangers to ‘zero emission’ marine propulsion. Over the past decade they have built groundbreaking boat designs to push the envelope of marine technology.

In 2023 they entered the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, building a fully hydrogen-powered hydrofoil boat and, as the only student team in the event, beat off challenges from commercial companies to win the event and be crowned World Champions.

However, the latest challenge will push the team much further, as whilst speed and agility played a major role in 2023 World Championship, to cross the North Sea, the focus must be on endurance, with robustness and reliability being key design considerations for the new boat.

The design is much larger than in previous years, allowing the hydrofoils to be placed further apart. This wider ‘wingspan’ contributes to the stability of the vessel as it hovers above the higher waves that will be encountered in the North Sea (compared to the Mediterranean at Monaco).

The boat carries three hydrogen tanks, holding a total of 25 kg of hydrogen, which will be converted into water via a single fuel cell, generating the electric energy needed to power the boat across the North Sea, without any need to re-fuel.

Cooling a hydrogen propulsion system is a major consideration for any boatbuilder. In the Hydro Motion boat, four Bowman heat exchangers, supplied by Koninklijke Van Twist (www.kvt.nl), Bowman’s Netherlands distributor, are being used exclusively for the entire cooling system.

Struts underneath the boat draw sea water into the ‘open loop’ cooling circuit, which is then pumped through the Bowman heat exchangers to cool the ‘closed loop’ cooling circuits.

These include the fuel cell and its accompanying converter and compressor, the motor and motor controller, plus the Brightloop DC/DC converter, using demineralised water as the cooling medium.

The compact design and excellent thermal transfer performance of the Bowman units makes them ideal for hydrogen fuel cell propulsion, where space is often limited.

They also proved to be the ideal cooling solution in 2023 when the Hydro Motion team won the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge!

Commenting on this latest challenge, Bowman Sales Manager, Tony Carter, said ‘We wish the TU Delft Hydro Motion team every success in their latest challenge to show that hydrogen fuel really can go the distance in the marine industry. We have enjoyed a successful association with the team over many years and look forward to welcoming them to the UK when they arrive in London later this year.’