Design award for Dutch fuel cell boat
The recent Maritime Awards Gala in Amsterdam saw the prestigious VNSI TimmersAward 2010 for young maritime designers go to Nico van der Hoeven fromAlewijnse Marine Technology B.V. based at Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
Nico works as a systems engineer within Alewijnse Marine Systems for the company’s dedicated research and development department Alewijnse Marine Technology B.V. He was nominated during the Designers Congress held earlier this year at the Ship Simulator Centre of STC Rotterdam for his work and display of technical skill on thedevelopment of the automation system for a fuel cell boat project.
Called H2 Nemo, the fuel cell boat is a canal trip vessel capable of carrying 87 passengers and built for the Lovers Shipping Company. It is now operational on the waterways ofAmsterdam and is powered entirely by hydrogen. The hydrogen is converted by fuel cells into electricity which is then used to power the motors, making the boat entirely emissions free.
For optimal efficiency the boat requires a sophisticated monitoring and automation system to manage the fuel consumption and cooling, and alert the captain should any issues arise.
H2 Nemo is21.95m long with a beam of 4.25m and a draught of 1m. It features an 11 kW electric bow thruster and a 75 kW electric azimuth thruster, six hydrogen storage tanks with a pressure of 35 MPa for 24 kg of hydrogen, with a 60 to 70 kW PEM fuel cell and an integrated 30-50 kW battery .
The boat has a nine hour range at a cruising speed of nine knots. The hydrogen station is powered by NoordzeeWind for the electrolysis of water and has a production capacity of 60 m3 of hydrogen per hour, which would be sufficient for two cruise boats.
H2 Nemo was designed and developed by Fuel Cell Boat Construction B.V., which is comprised of three Dutch companies. In addition to Alewijnse Marine Technology B.V., they include Shipyard De Kaap B.V. at Meppel and Marine Systems Noord B.V. of Westerbroek.
