Cover Story: No Discharge

No Discharge

The fi rst commercial hydrogen-powered vessel hits the water.

By Bruce Buls, Correspondent

When the Sea Change, a 70'×25' aluminum catamaran with seating for 78, was rst conceived, the developers called it the Water-Go-Round. The name re ected both the vessel’s mission as a waterborne ferry and its power system, which would be water-sourced hydrogen powering fuel cells that generate electricity to turn motors and charge batteries. So, from water comes the power to push the Water-Go-Round around.

That name dates back to 2018, when the newly formed company Golden Gate Zero Emissions Marine received a $3 million grant from the California Air Resources Board (funded by California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions) to design and construct a passenger ferry powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

The company was founded by Dr. Joe Pratt, who had been working as a research engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif., near San Francisco Bay. At Sandia, Pratt and colleague Dr. Lennie Klebanoff took what they considered a “crazy idea” and put together a study of potential marine uses of hydrogen fuel cells. The study focused in part on a concept vessel called the SF Breeze, which was envisioned as a 350-passenger catamaran ferry powered by hydrogen.

It was an outlandish idea, said Pratt, because no one had seriously looked into the possibility of running a boat that big using only hydrogen. “In 2015, the main focus for fuel cells was on cars, and also forklifts, which need about ve kilowatts of power,” he said. “Cars use maybe 80 to 100 kilowatts. Both require only a few kilograms of hydrogen storage.”

The name Sea Change refl ects both the vessel’s mission as a waterborne ferry and its power system — water-sourced hydrogen that powers fuel cells.

Given those uses, and small-scale fuel cells used by NASA on spacecraft, nobody was thinking about hydrogen fuel cells powering something as big as a high-speed commercial ferry. So, after Pratt and Klebanoff ran the numbers and sketched it out, they thought it might actually work. It was a surprise to them and everybody else that it was possible to scale up the technology to that extent. Pratt and Klebanoff also worked with the Coast Guard and DNV, the classi cation society, to determine if the design could pass regulatory muster. “I think, frankly, that’s why that study is still referenced around the world,” said Pratt, “because it did open our eyes certainly, and I think it opened a lot of other people’s eyes to the potential.”

Pratt’s work at Sandia also led him to consider the commercial possibilities of hydrogen in the marine industry, which is why he took leave from Sandia and started Golden Gate Zero Emissions Marine. In 2018, Pratt and the company commissioned a smaller catamaran design from Incat Crowther and awarded a construction contract to Bay Ship & Yacht, Alameda, Calif.

NEW OWNER, NEW YARD

SWITCH Maritime joined the project in 2019. Pace Ralli, SWITCH co-founder and CEO, had initially met Pratt at a conference in Brooklyn and was actively looking for partners to design and build zero-emissions commercial vessels. Ralli founded SWITCH because he sees tremendous potential in the marine marketplace, especially in ferries.

“There needs to be, in general, a pretty signi cant eet renewal in the U.S.,” he told WorkBoat. “Our objective is to make sure that that renewal is not dependent on more diesel-powered ferries that will last for another 30 years with diesel emissions. We want to help existing ferry operators adopt zero-carbon technologies.” SWITCH also promises to help build the supply chain, whether it’s hydrogen or battery charging. “We have the ability to put together that infrastructure for the ferry operator as well.”

As an “investment platform,” SWITCH provided the matching money for the $3 million CARB grant, and a bunch more as well, until they owned the boat. Pace said that the total cost of this rst hydrogenpowered boat is around $10 million,

The cabin of the Sea Change features seats for 78 passengers. The seats are attached to removable rails, so the interior can be reconfi gured for special events.

HYDROGEN, HOT AND COLD

The fuel cell is not new technology. Its fi rst known demonstration took place in 1839. Simply put, it’s an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy into electricity, heat and water.

A common fuel cell design, and the type used on the Sea Change, is called a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell that runs on hydrogen and oxygen. In it, hydrogen atoms (H2) are stripped of their electrons by a platinum catalyst and directed into a circuit that is completed when these electrons are combined with oxygen (O2) and form water (H2O). Hydrogen and oxygen in; heat, electricity and water out.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the known universe, but there’s no ambient availability here on the surface of the earth, as there is with oxygen. It has to be split off from other molecules, such as water or methane. Getting hydrogen from water is easily done (but power intensive) with a process called electrolysis, during which an electric current is passed through water, creating both pure hydrogen and oxygen. If the electricity used in electrolysis is from a renewable source, such as hydroelectric, solar or wind, then the hydrogen is considered “green.” If the hydrogen is cracked off from natural gas, not so much.

Hydrogen is usually compressed for storage as a gas, as on the Sea Change, or it can be cooled to -252 C and stored as a liquid, which takes less space, although the tanks must be heavily insulated.

Hydrogen is a fuel, and it burns if ignited, so appropriate precautions must be taken. But since the molecule is so light, it disappears quickly up into the atmosphere when released. If a hydrogen-powered vessel had an accident in a sensitive ecological environment, said Sandia Labs researcher Lennie Klebanoff, “the fuel not only removes itself from this environment, it removes itself from the planet.” — Bruce Buls

The three banks of Cummins fuel cells are located in a designated room on the main deck, aft of the passenger cabin. This fisheye view shows the fuel-cell banks in the center and the seawater heat exchanger by the open door.

which includes a $5 million loan from KeyBank.

As the new owners, SWITCH changed shipyards. Ralli had met Ron Wille, the recently promoted president of All American Marine, Bellingham, Wash., at a conference in Amsterdam. SWITCH followed that up with a yard visit a few months later by Elias Van Sickle, another company executive.

“All American really has a focus on these new technologies,” said Ralli. “And they have experience with the BAE systems. So, we felt comfortable, as an owner, taking the boat to them to be completed.” The Sea Change was strapped to a barge and towed north to Bellingham, Wash., in March of 2020. When it arrived, much of the structure was in place, but there was still a lot of aluminum work to do, according to Wille, as well as all the equipment installation and outfitting. In Bellingham, the team included Hornblower Group, which had been hired by SWITCH to be its owner’s

The fuel cells are augmented by two banks of 50-kWh lithium-ion batteries supplied by Xalt. The battery banks are located in the catamaran hulls below the main deck.

rep during construction, BAE Systems, which provides the HybriGen backbone that integrates the electrical power with the propulsion, and Cummins Marine, which supplied the fuel cells. Originally, the fuel cells were developed by a company called Hydrogenics, but Cummins purchased that company in 2019 as part of its embrace of zero-emissions technology. Another key vendor in the Sea Change construction is Hexagon, which supplied the high-pressure fuel tanks for the hydrogen. Joe Pratt and Golden Gate Zero Emissions Marine, now Zero Emission Industries have continued to be a prominent partner. XALT Energy supplied the two banks of lithium-ion batteries.

COAST GUARD APPROVAL

The other key player in the development of the first solely hydrogenpowered, commercial vessel in the U.S., if not the world, is the U.S. Coast Guard, which has to certify its design, construction and operation.

In late September, final vessel approval from the Coast Guard was still pending. The hydrogen tanks were empty and the fuel cells had not been tested since installation. The boat can be, and has been, operated by batteries alone, but the Coast Guard was still examining the plans for protecting the hazardous areas where the hydrogen

SEA CHANGE SPECIFICATIONS

Builder: Bay Ship & Yacht; All American Marine Designer: Incat Crowther (structural); Hornblower Group (systems); Zero Emission Industries (hydrogen power) Owner: SWITCH Maritime Mission: Passenger service Passenger/Crew Capacity: 78; 2-3 Length: 72'7" Beam: 24'6" Draft: 4.5' (molded) Hull & Superstructure: Aluminum Propulsion: (2) BAE Systems, 300-kW electric traction motors, rated @ 240 kW continuous Fuel Cell: (3) 120 kW, Cummins HyPM R120 HD Batteries: (2) Xalt, 50-kWh lithium-ion pack XMP71 Propeller: (2) 27", fi xed pitch, 5-bladed Speed: 22 knots (top, estimated) Capacities: Fuel (hydrogen), 264 kg (in 10 Hexagon Magnum highpressure tanks, (8) 26"x225", (2) 26"x95"); fresh water, 120 gals. Important Ancillary Equipment/Systems: (2) BAE 30-kW 230 V 3 phase inverter; (2) BAE 30-kW 24 VDC power supply; (2) Victron 8-kW inverter/charger; (4) FloMax cooling pump; (5) Kidde fi xed fi re suppression system Range: Two days of operation Certifi cation: Subchapter T Delivery Date: October 2021 (estimated)

is stored and utilized. “We did just get approval of the electrical plans and the ■■■■■ DVTPs, the Design Veri cation Testing Procedures,” said Wille, “but the Coast Guard still has questions about ■ ■■■

hazardous areas.”

Overall, Wille and Pratt said that the Coast Guard has been cooperative, but it’s been dif cult for everyone to plow new ground on a project with power technology that has never been used this way before.

“The folks at Zero Emissions Marine worked with the Coast Guard from the start to come up with a design basis letter,” said Wille. “That letter outlines all of the regulatory standards that would be incorporated in the vessel. But there isn’t anything clearly spelled out in U.S. regulations, and we are using different sets of international regulations.”

“It [regulatory review] is a long process, and it can be challenging in terms of timelines,” said Ralli, “but the Coast Guard has been very supportive.”

“Having a regulatory framework in the CFRs would certainly be helpful,” said Pratt. “The pathway would be clearer from the beginning, but now that we have that design basis, it’s not that big of an issue.”

Once the nal boxes are checked, the Sea Change will be fueled with 264 kilograms of pure hydrogen compressed into 10 composite and steel tanks stacked on the top deck (they look like torpedoes), open to the air, painted black. The hydrogen will be fed to the fuel-cell compartment on the main deck at the aft end of the superstructure. Inside are three racks of fuel cells, each rack rated at 120 kilowatts for a total of 360 kilowatts of power. There’s also a seawater heat exchanger for cooling the fuel cells.

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The Sea Change will be transported to San Francisco where it will begin a three-month testing period.

The generated electricity will be used to keep the two banks of lithium-ion batteries (one 50 kWh in each hull) charged and to directly drive the two 300-kW traction motors that turn the two xed-pitch propellers.

Top speed is expected to be 22 knots. Noise and vibration will be minimal. Carbon emissions will be zero.

If the Sea Change performs as expected, it will demonstrate the feasibility of green, zero-carbon propulsion for the maritime industry.

Pratt and Ralli both believe that hydrogen fuel-cell technology can be scaled large enough for even high-horsepower tugs and oceangoing ships.

Once fully operational in Bellingham, the Sea Change will be barged back to San Francisco Bay where it will begin a three-month testing period, with and without passengers. The boat will be operated by Hornblower. After that, it will be available for lease.

Ralli said they had expected to have a charter for cross-Bay commuters but the pandemic’s effect on of ce work scuttled that plan. The boat could stay in California, or it could be relocated almost anywhere in the U.S.

All seats are attached to removable tracks, so the interior can be cleared for other uses. The vessel can be operated by a crew of two.

As the Sea Change approaches real-life viability, all partners in the project are eager for it to enter service. This could be a turning point in 21st century marine operations.

“I think we as a country really need to take these steps to look for whatever other alternatives are out when it comes to generating power,” said Wille. “Clean power is something that we’re all going to bene t from in the future. We just need to work through the nuts and bolts of it today.”

“This will be the rst ship that will have 100 percent hydrogen fuel-cell-produced power,” said Ralli. “No backup generators. No diesel gensets charging up the batteries or doing anything. It’s de nitely a milestone for the industry.”

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