Corvus Energy will start development and production of sustainable, large scale maritime-certified hydrogen fuel cell systems. Toyota will be a key partner and supplier of mass-produced fuel cell technology.
Corvus established a collaboration with Norwegian partners Equinor, shipowners Norled and Wilhelmsen, ship design company LMG Marin, the NCE Maritime CleanTech cluster and R&D institution the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) to develop and produce modularised and cost-effective PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell systems for the international marine market.
The project has received EUR 5.2m in funding from state agency Innovation Norway. The development is scheduled to showcase its first marine fuel cell system onboard a vessel in 2023 and the product will be marine certified and available for commercial delivery from 2024.
Corvus and Toyota signed a partnership on 18 December 2020, securing Corvus’s access to proven fuel cell technology, while also enabling large-scale production and competitive pricing. The production will be Norway’s first of its kind.
Fuel cell technology has reached a maturity level where scale-up of systems will be the next step. Toyota is in the forefront of the development and is by far the best partner for us to make this a success
stated Corvus Energy CEO Geir Bjørkeli.
Corvus’ new fuel cell division will design and certify the marine fuel cell system using the Toyota fuel cell technology as a building block for larger systems. Furthermore, a specific marine control system uniting the battery and fuel cell operation will be developed for easy integration with power management systems from a range of system integrators.
The initiative represents an important step towards achieving both goals by producing modularised systems not available on a large scale today
Corvus concluded.