The H2 Barge 2 is a hydrogen fuel-cell powered ship designed to transport containers on the Rhine between Rotterdam (NL) and Duisburg (DE) with zero emissions that could represent a massive reduction in carbon emissions.
Developed by Dutch shipowner Future Proof Shipping (FPS) and funded by the EU Flagships project and the Interreg ZEM Ports NS project, the H2 Barge 2 (formerly Fenny 1 and FPS Waal) was built as a conventionally powered containership before being converted to electric drive – with the 1.2 MW of power to drive the vessel’s motors coming from six PEM fuel cells, hydrogen storage, and a number of battery packs placed below deck.
Compared to its previous incarnations, the H2 Barge 2 is expected to reduce 3,000 tons of CO2 annually while sailing a comparable amount of shipping containers up and down the the Rhine. And, in doing so (the company says), the vessel proves that the European river fleet can be, “fully zero emission already today.”
Top comment by Jilles van Gurp
The same physics that make hydrogen impractical on the road also make it not that great for shipping. The problem is volume. It's almost 3x the volume of natural gas. That's true in both liquid form and compressed gas form. It's a relevant comparison because there are some ships that run on LNG. Including some ships that transport LNG. That's actually smart because you have to boil some off to keep it liquid anyway and you might as well burn it. And then there are some cruise ships that have huge LNG tanks and short ranges. Liquid hydrogen requires really heavy duty tanks and you have to boil off non trivial amounts of it to keep it liquid. Much more than is the case with LNG. In compressed gas form you need a huge tank about 18x the size you would reserve for the equivalent in diesel.
This container ship is tiny. It's designed for transporting a handful of containers over short distances. The design doesn't scale. There are similarly sized battery electric ships as well. The main issue with both is range and delivering energy to them.
Hydrogen as a fuel doesn't make sense, It's future in shipping is to serve as a way to produce other fuels that are much easier to deal with. Even shipping it around is a PITA. You need about 3 hydrogen ships for 1 LNG ship to deliver the same amount of energy. Nobody has a solution for this. This is just the way the physics work out. Hydrogen is best used very close to where it is produced.
“Inland waterways are important for freight transport in Europe, we are thrilled to see a high-power container vessel being converted to zero-emission,” says Mirela Atanasiu, Executive Director ad interim of Clean Hydrogen Partnership. “The H2 Barge 2 will bring knowledge on how to retrofit vessels from diesel combustion to zero-emission alternatives, by using batteries in combination with green hydrogen in a fuel cell. I am proud to see that our funding contributes to the decarbonization of freight transport in the European Union.”
The second demonstrator vessel in the EU Flagships project, a similar vessel named Zulu 06, is set to be deployed in Paris later this year.
Electrek’s Take
It’s been said before: hydrogen is dead in the water when it comes to passenger cars, but the same isn’t obviously true on the heavy equipment side of things – and it doesn’t get any heavier than container ships.
Whether at shipyards, drayage terminals, rock quarries, or on the water, thousands of kWhs’ worth of work need to be done day-in and day-out to keep things moving, and the energy density of batteries just isn’t yet there. Despite that, hydrogen’s heavy costs – both carbon and monetary – have kept it an impractical option … and while that’s starting to change, the batteries are getting better too.
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