TECO 2030 and partners to receive €13.5M Horizon Europe grant for fuel cell passenger ferry project
26 July 2023
TECO 2030 and its consortium partners will receive HORIZON EUROPE funding of €13.5 million to build and demonstrate a passenger ferry powered by TECO 2030 fuel cells. The grant amount reserved for TECO 2030 is €2.3 million. The principal goal of the project is to accelerate the transition towards safe use of sustainable fuels in waterborne transport through full-scale demonstration of hydrogen fuel cells within maritime applications.
The consortium aims to develop a full hydrogen infrastructure for a hydrogen-powered vessel.
The consortium consists of 14 partners from seven European countries covering the whole innovation value chain, including technology developers, academic institutions, maritime engineering, class society, digital transformation and a shipyard.
The project is a Horizon Innovation Action that aims to develop, build and demonstrate a 35-meter, 300-passenger capacity vessel that will be powered by the FCM400 fuel cell system by TECO 2030. The vessel will be operated in Southern Europe.
The FCM 400 has a rated power (BOL, beginning of life) of 325 kW at the system level, corresponding to 366 kW at the stack level.
TECO 2030 will work closely with all the consortium partners to develop the entire value chain ensuring full operational requirements for the vessel. This includes a functional hydrogen refueling system, fulfilling infrastructure requirements, cost optimization during operations and efficient data management.
TECO 2030 expects the grant preparation process to be finalized later this year, and the project start date to be around January 2024.
I love what you have done here!
Posted by: Emily Morgan | 26 July 2023 at 06:57 AM
Note that the power is stated as "BOL, beginning of life."
Does this mean that FCs lose power over time, - anyone ?
And if so, how quickly ?
Also, 400kW is not a huge amount of power for what looks like quite a large ship.
Anyway, I'm sure they will learn plenty by doing this.
Posted by: mahonj | 26 July 2023 at 08:20 AM
Hi Jim.
The wording of the presser ain't too clever, but note that they talk about the FCM 400 system, which is modular, and fits into a 20 foot container where you need multiple units in the FCM 1600:
https://fuelcellsworks.com/news/teco-2030-launches-fuel-cell-container/
Presumably this will use one or more such containers.
Posted by: Davemart | 26 July 2023 at 09:21 AM
As for degradation rates, any system including diesel engines loses ratings over time.
The one in the FCM 400 is rated at equal or greater than 30,000 hours before it needs switching out.
See the brochure downloadable here:
https://teco2030.no/solutions/teco-marine-fuel-cell/
For comparison, here are marine diesels:
https://dieselpro.com/blog/what-is-the-life-expectancy-of-a-marine-diesel-engine/
' Marine operations can be brutal on engines. Between the inconsistent environments and the constant presence of water, a motor operating in this scenario needs incredible resilience. Fortunately, resilience is one of the defining features of a diesel engine. Even in this challenging environment, the life expectancy of a marine diesel engine is an impressive 5,000 hours on average. With attentive maintenance, that lifespan can reach 8,000 hours.'
!!!!
Now maybe they are being over optimistic on the PEM fuel cells in a marine environment, but for land based operations is buses, fuel cells have shown a pretty stellar reliability, and has held down the premium for the tech on a lifetime use basis.
At sea, diesels are no fun at all, and it seems highly likely from all the data and testing so far that fuel cells are going to take out most of the hassle and greatly improve reliability as well as longevity.
Posted by: Davemart | 26 July 2023 at 09:27 AM
When I looked at the pretty low lifespan of diesel engines, I wondered if the figures I had turned up related to smaller diesel engines, not the big ones, so I had another dig around.
The ones I have quoted seem pretty prevalent though.
I did turn up one operator who quotes for the fishing vessels he runs a far higher figure of up to 20,000 hours, and for some apparently up to 30,000:
https://www.frontierpower.com/resources/articles-and-links/how-long-will-a-diesel-engine-last/
As the post notes, there are a whole bunch of application and care specific caveats around that, and it seems to be an outlier.
A bit like folk who have been running a Volvo car for 500,000 miles or whatever, sure it happens, but it is unwise to extrapolate from that to expected lifespans for cars in general.
Of course, if you mucked around fuel cells by operating them out of their favoured envelope then they would have shorter life, although they are inherently buffered to a considerable extent through being used in conjunction with a battery for transient loads etc.
But the folk who calculate MTBF etc are pretty good at averaging such variables, so as far as I can discover the likely considerably enhanced AVERAGE life of a fuel cell system against a marine diesel seems to be pretty solid.
Posted by: Davemart | 26 July 2023 at 02:34 PM
I think we both know more about marine engine maintenance than 2 days ago.
I imagine they will find out the real lifetimes of fuel cells once they start using them in anger, and on a daily basis.
Posted by: mahonj | 27 July 2023 at 03:31 AM
Jim:
Of course with time and experience estimates improve and refine, and of course there can and will be further technical progress.
But the estimates we have are pretty robust, and based on way more than guesswork, for instance FC buses have hit or exceeded reliability, durability and maintenance targets.
So it seems likely that marine engines will be way, way better for durability and low maintenance as well as avoiding stinky pollution and carbon emissions.
I know which I would rather have on a boat between a diesel engine and a fuel cell.
Posted by: Davemart | 27 July 2023 at 10:16 AM
Jim:
I just thought I would mention that we have had experience of fuel cells in a marine environment for years, with the EFOY methanol auxilliary fuel cell used in boats as well as campervans etc:
https://www.my-efoy.com/en/efoy-fuell-cells/
They have shown great reliabiity etc, AFAIK.
So fuel cells on a boat are not a step into the unknown, although to be sure the power is higher, but FCs are deeply modular, to a far greater extent than combustion engines,
Everyone loves them for their quiet, reliable, noise and fume free performance, with cost really being the only gripe.
Posted by: Davemart | 27 July 2023 at 04:07 PM