Clean waterborne transport in Europe

The FLAGSHIPS project raises the readiness of zero-emission waterborne transport to an entirely new level by demonstrating two commercially operated hydrogen fuel cell vessels. The demo vessels include a new build in France (Lyon) and a retrofit in Norway (Stavanger). The Lyon demo is a push-boat operating as a utility vessel on one of the most demanding rivers, the Rhône, while the Stavanger demo is a passenger and car ferry operating as part of the local public transport network. In the project, a total of 1.2 MW of on-board fuel cell power will be installed and both vessels will run on hydrogen produced on-site with electrolyzers powered by renewable electricity. Gaseous (Lyon) and liquid (Stavanger) hydrogen will be used in the vessels' on-board hydrogen storage. Both vessels will be approved for safety. The project will cooperate over a broad base to complete the required safety assessment and approval for the two vessels, by applying and further developing the existing regulations and codes. The ship owners expect to maintain the ships in normal commercial operation after the 18-month demonstration period of the project and to this end, a solid support from local end-users and community has been gathered. The project will reduce the capital cost of marine fuel cell power systems significantly by leveraging knowhow from existing on-shore and marine system integration activities. European supply chains for H2 fuel and FC system technologies are strengthened by networking through the project. The consortium includes ten European partners, with two ship owners Norled (NO) and CFT (FR), and the maritime OEM and design companies ABB (FI), Kongsberg Maritime (NO) and LMG Marine (NO & FR). World-leading fuel cell technology is provided by Ballard Europe (DK) and vessel energy monitoring and management by Pers-EE (FR). Management and dissemination activities are provided by VTT (FI) and NCE Maritime CleanTech (NO), respectively.