Development and demonstration of mobile and stationary compressed hydrogen refuelling solutions for application in inland shipping and short-distance maritime operations

This topic aims to contribute to setting standards for future inherently safer hydrogen bunkering for inland shipping, and for short-distance sea-going maritime applications, including in island contexts. Developing these solutions is of vital importance to facilitating further innovation activity in deploying hydrogen solutions in shipping, as well as in de-risking future investments.

Project results are expected to contribute to, but not limited to, the following expected outcomes:

• Improved understanding of the health and safety requirements for hydrogen bunkering in a range of operational shipping contexts, which will make bunkering more efficient and inherently safer to reduce hazards and consequences of potential incidents, and thus de-risk future developments;
• Closed knowledge gaps on characteristic hazards and associated risks;
• Lessons learned which can inform heavy-duty refuelling development for other sectors, to facilitate further deployment of hydrogen in a wide range of transport and freight sectors;
• Identification of regulatory challenges and barriers, and areas of focus for pre-normative research and regulatory reform, in order to unlock future fuelling of heavy-duty applications;
• Guidelines and/or draft standards for hydrogen bunkering components and systems to increase the coherence of innovation activities and improve uptake throughout Europe and beyond;
• Leveraging the opportunities associated with shipping as an off-take sector in the development of business cases for hydrogen storage and distribution networks.
• Improved understanding of requirements for type approval for both ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship interfaces and control systems to facilitate widespread commercialisation of the solutions;
• Deployment of hydrogen bunkering infrastructure of at least 800 kg H₂/day capacity in project locations;
• A boost in the uptake of hydrogen-fuelled vessels, and associated commercialisation benefits for the broader hydrogen economy;
• Training for vessel crew and bunker terminal personnel, which can be replicated.