Anders Korsgaard, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Blue World Technologies, urges the maritime industry to embrace new technologies in its journey toward decarbonization.
Many new concepts, such as fuel cells, have gained traction over the past few years and need to be tested and scaled. Although this technology is still in its early stages, it offers a promising solution to meet the growing demand for decarbonization
SAFETY4SEA: What is your company’s philosophy for the maritime industry and what are the top priorities on your agenda for the next five years?
Anders Korsgaard: Basically, we want to reduce the cost of going green. Decarbonising the maritime industry is a huge task, and the price for green fuels and new technologies is too expensive to pose a competitive alternative to conventional fuels and fossil-based technologies. By raising the system’s efficiency, the fuel cost will be reduced making it more attractive to go with a green solution. Additionally, we need strong solutions for carbon capture when using carbon-based fuels like methanol and LNG to enable zero-emission shipping. That is what we provide with our high-temperature (HT) PEM fuel cell system. We are initially targeting auxiliary power generation – but our goal is eventually also to provide large propulsion systems. Our top priorities for the next five years are to get our first 1 MW pilot out sailing and see more fuel cells at sea follow as we release the fuel cell system for auxiliary power generation as a finished product.
S4S: As we move forward, how do you feel the challenges of decarbonization will impact the maritime industry from your perspective?
A.K.: There are several large challenges in decarbonising the maritime industry, but they all need to be addressed to successfully transition the industry into using green fuels and new technologies. For more than a century, the maritime industry has relied on conventional combustion engines, and it is expensive and very complex to change into new technologies and fuels – and currently, there is not enough green fuel available. To overcome these challenges, we believe that the maritime future will consist of different technologies and fuels, fuel cells and methanol being a strong contributor.
S4S: What makes fuel cell technology a key choice for achieving carbon neutrality? What is your feedback from the market so far?
A.K.: Fuel saving. That is the short answer. That is where we differentiate ourselves from, not just, combustion technologies but also low-temperature (LT) PEM fuel cells. The high electrical efficiency of our HT-PEM fuel cells enables substantial fuel savings which is essential when running on bio- or e-fuels. Furthermore, through our patented carbon capture technology, we provide up to 100% carbon capture. This allows for carbon circularity for the production of new fuels or for storage. We are receiving a lot of positive feedback from the market – it is clear that we are bringing something new to the table. Within the last couple of years, fuel cells have gained ground in the maritime industry as a strong solution towards decarbonisation and we are beginning to see the first pilots, but it is still at a very early stage. There is a broad interest across the industry from the largest players owning huge fleets to smaller niche companies and it is across different ship segments – they are all looking for solutions to meet the growing demand for decarbonisation.
S4S: How do you foresee the role of fuel cells evolving in the next decade?
A.K.: We expect to gradually see fuel cell technologies gaining larger market shares within the next decade. In ten years, fuel cells should be a standard solution offered by shipyards around the world for baseload operation. At this time, we should also see projects and pilots with fuel cells for propulsion on large ships and there should be propulsion systems on the way to be released as commercial products.
S4S: What future trends or developments do you foresee in the field of fuel cell technologies and how is your company positioning itself to stay at the forefront of these advancements?
A.K.: Increased efficiency at a system level and improvements in degradation rates, resulting in longer lifetime of the fuel cells, are the two main parameters we will see develop in the coming years. And scaling of course – as fuel cell technologies are gaining ground, the technologies will scale significantly, and the technology maturity level will increase towards reaching a commercial stage. When Blue World was founded in 2018, we knew we needed to industrialise the HT-PEM technology to succeed. We are, therefore, vertically integrated with in-house R&D working at the cell level ensuring market-leading efficiencies and lifetime, we hold all the IP rights for the technology, and we have in-house production of all the core components for the fuel cells. With this strong control on both product development and cell production allowing us to control when to implement improvements, new generations, and so forth, we feel that we are in a strong position to stay at the forefront and for us to make a significant contribution to maritime decarbonisation. Within the last couple of years, we have seen methanol as a maritime fuel gain solid ground, and we believe that it is a continuing trend. The HT-PEM fuel cells have a high resistance to impurities making it ideal to combine with liquid fuel like methanol.
S4S: What regulatory hurdles or other challenges need to be addressed to facilitate the widespread adoption of your technology within the maritime industry?
A.K.: One of the big hurdles for the adoption of our technology is the class regulations for fuel cells that are still under development. So, this is important to get done to ensure the implementation of the technology. From a broader perspective, we are seeing a good development with IMO, EU through fuelEU, and others pushing towards decarbonisation e.g., through carbon taxes that create financial incentives to decarbonise. Another challenge is fuel availability. We are seeing a positive development with many methanol production pilot projects carried out and new projects on the drawing board, but we are also seeing that the scaling of projects is paused at the FID-stage (final investment decision). Those projects need to pass the FID in order to increase fuel production globally.
S4S: What is your wish list for the industry and/or regulators and all parties involved for addressing the critical issue of decarbonization?
A.K.: At a regulatory level, we are seeing that good and important steps towards decarbonisation are being taken, and we are experiencing a strong willingness to take action from e.g., shipowners. We are primarily talking to end-users, where the interest in fuel cells is high, but shipyards from around the world also need to take an interest in adapting new technologies. Currently, their focus is on building ships at a low cost, so they need incentives to be open towards adapting new technologies that, at this early stage, come at a much higher cost. Additionally, we would like to see more scaling in the production of green fuels, as scaling is essential to bring the fuel price down – this could e.g., come through subsidies.
S4S: How can industry stakeholders best collaborate in support of sustainable development and carbon neutrality to witness real progress towards industry’s goals?
A.K.: 99% of the current fleet is based on conventional combustion technologies and fossil fuel, so decarbonising the maritime industry and moving away from a technology and a fuel that has been used for more than a century is a tremendous task that requires all hands on deck. Therefore, to reach the industry goals for carbon reduction, players around the industry need to be willing to collaborate with new technology providers and dare to embrace new technologies despite low maturity levels so they can get tested. This goes for wind sails, air bubbles, fuel cells, carbon captures, and all new technologies – the entire industry needs to take responsibility.
S4S: Do you have any new projects/plans that you would like to share with industry stakeholders?
A.K.: Based on feedback from the market, methanol availability is a large concern, so we are experiencing an increased interest in running our fuel cell system on LNG. Combining our HT-PEM technology with LNG can provide efficiencies superior to LNG using combustion engines, eliminate methane slip, and enable 100% carbon capture. This will allow for 1) zero-emission operation when running on fossil LNG and 2) a cost-efficient source of biogenic CO2. This is very interesting and is something we are currently looking into and so far, the case seems very promising.
S4S: If you could change one thing across the industry from your perspective, what would it be and why?
A.K.: Within the past couple of years, we have seen incredible steps taken towards greener shipping with the implementation of new fuels – this has happened at high speed, and we need to continue with this and only increase the pace further. If I could change one thing across the industry it would be to see the same speed and willingness when it comes to embracing new technologies essential to decarbonising the industry.
S4S: What is your key message to industry stakeholders to foster a more sustainable future for shipping?
A.K.: Let’s go – we are ready! There are multiple new technologies out there that are far along in the development and that need support to get tested and scaled. To decarbonise global shipping, it is crucial to develop new technologies, so the industry needs to support the development by daring to place not only the first but also following orders or to invest directly in those development companies.
The views presented are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
