Yanmar Holdings and its subsidiary Yanmar Power Technology are to develop a hydrogen fuel cell system for marine applications based on vehicle fuel cell technology.
Initially the new maritime fuel cell system will be installed on Yanmar’s own test boat with field testing starting by the end of 2020.
The company will start with coastal vessels and work vessels in ports with the aim of expanding the technology into leisure vessels at a later date.
The announcement follows the International Maritime Organisation’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the end of this century.
As such, marine environmental regulations have been tightened worldwide and the implementation of emission control areas has begun to have an effect on ship operations.
Dual-fuel engines
So far, Yanmar has addressed demands for emission control regulations by developing dual-fuel engines that can be used with both LNG, diesel fuel and cleaner diesel engine technologies.
The company is now moving on to develop non-fossil fuel powertrains.
As a part of this challenge, Yanmar has been working on development of future engines using hydrogen as fuel.
The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Toyota Motor Corporation to develop the new hydrogen fuel cell system based on hydrogen fuel cell system components including high pressure hydrogen tanks on Mirai, Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
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