How Electric or Hydrogen Powered Ships Could Change the World

The widespread use of electric battery or hydrogen fuel cell powered ships could result in a significant reduction in emission and noise pollution. There will also be potential cost savings. This could contribute to big changes in the world, or could even be a big change to the world on its own.

Ships use a lot of fuel to move cargo and passengers around the world.

Per tonne transported, they do use less fuel than aircraft. However, the amount of fuel used in the entire industry, especially for all the transport ships, creates a great opportunity for environmental and cost savings.

The world uses about 300 million tons of fuel for transport shipping each year. That is a lot of fossil fuel being burnt, producing a lot of pollution. In some parts of the world, shipping is the largest source of sulfur dioxide emissions

As of writing (end of January 2022 from Ship&Bunker), the cost of marine fuels are about US$700/t for VLSFO, US$830/t for MGO and US$550/t for IFO380. So the fuel cost of running one large container ship can run into the tens of millions of dollars per year. It is often more than half of the operating cost of a ship.

Some of the move to electric or hydrogen fueled ships will be from regulatory requirements to lower carbon emissions and other pollution, but there is also hope that eventually cost savings will also be seen. If the cost to run an electric or hydrogen powered ship is lower than to use marine diesel or even heavy fuel oil, then the change will be much faster and will see a lot less resistance in the industry.

This change to battery or hydrogen powered ships will probably be done at the same time as the industry transitions to autonomous ships with no or much fewer crew.

For short trips (like ferries), electric batteries are a likely solution. These would be charged over night or at their stops.

For long distance trips (i.e. not just day ferries etc) hydrogen fuel cells seem like the most likely solution to replace oil and gas powered engines. The only outputs from a fuel cell are electricity, water and some heat.

Currently, electric battery and fuel cell systems are much more expensive (on cost per kilowatt hour) compared to using diesel. However, over the past couple of decades we have seen significant cost reductions in battery and fuel cell technology, so there is a good possibility that the cost will come down enough to make it feasible to switch.

There are some great examples of ferries already in use that are fully battery powered, and some countries (such as Norway, China and Turkey). Some cruise lines have also converted to using fuel cells while in port, to reduce local emissions issues, which is helping advance the use and development of fuel cell technology in the shipping industry.

An example of cost and emissions savings is the MS Ampere in Norway. It uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery system and claims a 95% reduction in CO2 emissions and operating cost reduction of 80%.

Some other examples of fuel cell and battery use in the shipping industry include:

What other benefits or problems do you think may come from the widespread use of electric or hydrogen powered ships?