Bramble Energy is hailing a marine milestone after launching the world’s first hydrogen-electric boat powered by a printed circuit board fuel cell (PCBFC).
The HyTime project, which has seen Bramble team up with Barrus, has led to the creation of a demonstration vessel that has shown the potential that Bramble’s PCBFC technology has to quickly and cost-effectively decarbonise the marine sector. The system can provide a vessel with around 600 miles of range using 14kg of hydrogen stored on-board, as well as additional power supplied from solar panels on the boat’s roof to a 22kWh battery system.
With the global maritime sector contributing 940mn tonnes of CO2 each year, equating to around 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the Clean Maritime Plan has set the requirement for all new vessels to be zero emission capable as soon as 2025.
In this project, Bramble and Barrus aimed to show how the shift to a hydrogen fuel source could help this transition, providing a range extender to pure battery systems and cutting reliance on a charging base. The real-world testing which took place in Sheffield showed the system can save a boat up to 12 tonnes of CO2 every year.
