Green Hydrogen Produced By Roving Fleets Of Shadow Ships

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Green Hydrogen Produced By Roving Fleets Of Shadow Ships

Tina Casey | CleanTechnica | Aug 19, 2024

File this one under N for Now We’ve Seen Everything. A UK startup is planning to launch a fleet of futuristic sailboats equipped with electrolysis systems to produce green hydrogen fuel on-the-go. If that sounds a bit wacky, consider that the target markets are superyachts in need of clean fuel, along with islands, coastal communities, and port facilities where land for industrial development is scarce and conventional fuels are expensive.

Green Hydrogen Produced By Yachts: Not So Crazy After All

The startup behind the green hydrogen venture is DRIFT Energy. Oddball as it sounds, the basic pieces of the puzzle are in place. Green hydrogen is a new but rapidly maturing industry, the idea being to jolt hydrogen loose from water in an electrolysis system instead of extracting it from natural gas or coal. Hydrogen can be burned in a internal combustion engine or deployed to power zero emission fuel cells, which are already making an appearance in the high tech world of yacht racing.

Electrolysis systems are scalable and transportable, so it’s not much of a stretch to see them installed on a ship. DRIFT plans to run its electrolysis systems on electricity generated by underwater hydrogenerators. Turbines of this sort are in use today to provide on-board electricity for yachts and other vessels rather than relying on diesel generators.

Water is the final piece of the puzzle, and water is all around a sailing ship. Conventional electrolysis systems rely on purified water, but water purification systems are commonplace on board ships at sea. In addition, researchers are working on new electrolysis systems that can produce green hydrogen from seawater without the expense of pretreatment (see more clean H2 background here)...more
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/08/19/green-hydrogen-produced-by-roving-fleets-of-shadow-ships/

2/3rds of our earth is salt water. Seawater Electrolysis: the Next BIG Thing

https://www.horizoneducational.com/salt-water-fuel-cell-science-kit/p1225