The municipality of Helgoland has commissioned HPC to carry out a concept study for the construction of a hydrogen bunker station on the deep-sea island.
The study will require HPC to investigate the commercial and infrastructural suitability of the island as a potential location for H2 fuel supply for shipping traffic on the North Sea.
Driven by international sustainability goals and efforts to significantly reduce climate-damaging carbon dioxide emissions caused by shipping, ship owners are looking to power their vessels using alternative fuels.
While the use of LNG-powered container ships has already become standard, the market is looking for renewable alternatives with long-term potential. Current research focuses on methanol, ammonia and hydrogen drives to replace conventional marine diesel fuels.
For alternatively powered ships to be employed on a large scale, a corresponding bunker infrastructure must be available in ports. The island of Helgoland is frequented in particular by crew transfer vessels (CTVs), passenger and research ships and recreational craft.
At the same time, green hydrogen from the AquaPrimus project will be available on Helgoland in the future.
Taking into account the good availability of green hydrogen in the area of the island, we would like to examine the extent to which Helgoland can also reliably provide a supply for ships calling there in the future
said Christoph Tewis, project manager for AquaCore and the TransHyDE project Helgoland.
The concept study carried out by HPC includes, on the one hand, evaluating the market potential of alternative fuels for island shipping with the aim of estimating the potential demand. Taking the local framework conditions into consideration, various refueling concepts for hydrogen are then examined.
Another focus is to investigate the conditions and prerequisites for the possible location of a hydrogen bunkering station with reference to suitable plans to ensure the logistics of supplying the fuel.
In addition to evaluating and recommending such plans, the study will include initial estimates of the necessary investments.
