With marine environmental regulations tightening worldwide, in December 2020 the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry formulated its ‘Green Growth Strategy towards 2050 Carbon Neutrality’. The strategy highlights the development of energy and power sources that reduce the impact on the environment, including those for vessels powered by carbon-free fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia. Looking towards the future of powertrain technology, Yanmar has developed a maritime fuel cell system that incorporates hydrogen fuel cell modules from Toyota’s MIRAI automobile. The system was installed into Yanmar’s EX38A FC pleasure boat for field testing. The boat was the first to officially comply with the safety guidelines for hydrogen fuel cell vessels formulated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan.
Recently Yanmar conducted a field demonstration test for the maritime fuel cell system as the company sought to verify specific issues and solutions in a maritime environment for deployment of the fuel cell system. In the future, Yanmar has plans to scale the maritime fuel cell system by connecting multiple units. The system is planned to be deployed to larger vessels by 2025.
Read another hydrogen related article: Dutch inland vessel to be converted and powered by zero-emissions hydrogen propulsion system