Following the successful trials on a narrowboat, the inventors of the world’s first hydrogen-electric boat powered by a printed circuit board fuel cell have plans to take their technology to far larger vessel types.
Bramble Energy, as the lead partner in the HyTime project, created a demonstration vessel to showcase the marine decarbonisation potential by powering a hydrogen-electric boat powered with a printed circuit board fuel cell or PCBFC.
The 17 m long narrowboat was launched onto the water in Sheffield where it completed emissions-free testing using a custom marinised fuel cell system. The fuel cell system has the potential to provide the vessel with nearly 1,000 kilometres of range using 14 kg of hydrogen stored onboard, as well as additional power being supplied from solar panels on the boat’s roof to the 22kWh battery system.
According to Bramble, the vessel, which has been built from the ground up, has the potential to save each boat using this powertrain technology up to 12 tonnes of CO2 per year. The project demonstrated how a hydrogen fuel source could be used with a range extender to pure battery systems, but also remove the reliance on a charging base.
With the fuel cell stack successfully integrated into the narrowboat, it has now completed a comprehensive testing programme on UK inland waterways. Now, Bramble Energy will analyse the boat’s data along with vital information about the fuel cell’s performance under real-world conditions. This analysis will support the future development of PCBFC systems for wider maritime applications.
“Our success with the HyTime project has provided a valuable and informative blueprint for the scaleable potential of our PCBFC technology within the marine transportation sector. With significant efficiency advantages, including clear time and cost savings due to its innovative manufacturing process and low maintenance costs, PCBFC can transform marine transportation and spearhead the sector’s transition to net zero,” Tom Mason, co-founder and CEO of Bramble Energy, told Splash.
“PCBFC can be integrated within vessels of different shapes and sizes, and it is this versatility that differentiates it from existing fuel cell solutions. HyTime has now proven the feasibility of hydrogen fuel cells with the marine sector, and we can now look ahead to developing the technology to implement it in large vessels with greater range and power requirements,” he added.
