3 minute read
POWER TALK
Simon Everett is the man in the know when it comes to what is being launched and the latest technologies emerging in marine engines. Get the inside scoop right here… IN FAVOUR OF HYDROGEN?
The race to decarbonise has polarised industry thinking with, so far, a heavy bias towards electrification for transportation requirements, but recent statements from Japan and South Korea have pointed towards those highly industrialised countries favouring hydrogen and fuel cells as the preferred national policy.
There are good reasons for this. Japan has also committed to denuclearisation following the tragedy at Fukushima when a tsunami inundated the nuclear plant there with the inevitable resulting fallout. Do not forget, Japan was the first country to suffer the results of nuclear explosions and one can only imagine the cloud that the population lives under.
The Land of the Rising Sun has put forward a compelling argument for their strategy, the main reason being that by going down the hydrogen route the existing infrastructure can be adapted far more easily and economically than having to install an entire new system of support, which in any case would be insufficient to provide enough power for the constant demand.
Honda has been working on hydrogen fuelled outboards for eight or 10 years. The fact that Japan has decided to invest heavily in the development in hydrogen to replace fossil fuels must surely accelerate the wider take-up.
How this translates into engine news for the British marine market is as a pointer to a
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more effective alternative to the constant bid to electrification. As if by magic Cox Marine have announced they will be working with Brighton University to convert one of their diesel outboards to run as a dual fuel diesel/hydrogen engine.
This is part of the Port of Portsmouth initiative to create the first zero emissions maritime hub and has been entitled SHAPE (Shipping, Hydrogen and Port Ecosystems UK). The UK is in a good position to provide technological expertise and to develop the infrastructure giving birth to a new economic driver.
Staying with the diesel outboard theme, OXE has partnered with Jet-Tech propulsion and developed a high performance waterjet model of the OXE diesel outboard.
Waterjet propulsion is particularly suitable for use in shallow water and where there is a high risk of interaction with marine mammals, which is probably of more interest on the Intercoastal Waterway than the English Channel, but it shows commitment to the diesel outboard concept, especially in commercial applications.
The beauty of going down the hydrogen route is that it will maintain the viability of existing machinery. Imagine the ecological impact of replacing all those engines already in existence, rather than being able to make use of them. It is like running your car for 20 years, rather than changing it every three years, which is an ecological disaster and not at all green.
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