German partners break new ground on fuel cell development
The Helix concept shows a cruise ship with 100% fuel cell propulsion (Source: Meyer Werft)
A methanol-powered fuel cell system developed by Meyer Werft and strategic partner, Freudenberg e-Power Systems, is the first of its type to receive class approval. The companies are now preparing to advance the integration of fuel cell technology into both new and existing cruise vessels.
The cruise vessel, Silver Nova, currently being built by Meyer Werft, will have the largest fuel cell installation on a cruise vessel so far, and will be able to operate solely on fuel cell power while in port. In other projects, the partners are planning to retrofit a fuel cell system on board the cruise ship, AIDAnova, and Meyer Neptun Engineering and Freudenberg will be establishing a joint office to accelerate fuel cell development.
Meyer Group CTO, Malte Poelmann, commented: "We are hereby achieving another important interim goal in our green shipping strategy. We have been researching and developing fuel cell technology for maritime use for more than 15 years and are now seeing the first successes. The 1300 engineers in our Global Design Team are already developing the climate-friendly ship prototypes of tomorrow."
