Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Bloom Energy, a manufacturer of solid oxide fuel cells, announced their partnership on designing and developing a vessel that could be the first large merchant vessel powered by fuel cells that run on natural gas.
SHI received approval from DNV GL before commencing the project of building a cell-powered ship design for an Aframax crude oil tanker. DNV GL informed that the new design includes both conventional engines and Bloom Energy’s fuel cells.
The project is in line with IMO’s GHG strategy, the reduction in total GHG emissions from global shipping by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008.
Kyunghee Kim, vice president of SHI’s outfitting engineering team commented
As regulations to reduce GHG emissions take effect step-by-step, the introduction of fuel cells to vessels is inevitable. This approval, and being the first shipbuilder to secure this marine fuel cell technology, illustrates that Samsung Heavy is highly likely to lead the market.
Moreover, the technology that will equip the vessel virtually eliminates local health-related emissions like NOx, SOx and particulate matter. Its fuel cells generate power through an electrochemical reaction, which means that no combustion occurs.
Bloom’s VP of strategic market development, Preeti Pande, added that
The Energy Server power units are modular and can be placed about the ship in a space-maximizing arrangement. Because of their modularity, they can also be easily maintained. They have a normal lifespan of about five years, and when it is time for an overhaul, service crews can replace the main components – individual “stacks” of cells – without taking the entire unit offline.
