Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2022)

The Path to Zero

Photo courtesy EBDG

Hydrogen One

By Eric Haun, Editor, MarineNews towboat named Hydrogen One, set to Project @ a Glance ammonia, compressed hydrogen, biofuels; and hit the water in 2023, is being devel- what we came up with was methanol as the fuel

Name Hydrogen One oped by Maritime Partners, the largest of choice for our application. It is widely avail-

Owner Maritime Parnters

Operator ACBL

A lessor of marine equipment in the U.S. able throughout the river system and global port

Designer EBDG

Partners e1 Marine

It will be the ? rst of its kind globally to run on infrastructure, it can be distributed in existing fos- ABB RIX Industries emissions-reducing methanol-to-hydrogen gen- sil fuel distribution infrastructure, and it’s safe.” Power Cell Sweden erator technology, with no diesel propulsion on Jack Nash, an analyst with Maritime Partners, Lloyd’s Register board. The towboat was designed by Elliott Bay said at the WorkBoat Show that the company

Design Group (EBDG) and will be built at Intracoastal Iron looked at three primary criteria when evaluating the viability

Works in Bourg, La. Other partners in the project include e1 of future fuel options: strong emissions bene? ts, cost competi-

Marine and ABB. Once completed, the vessel will be oper- tiveness and strong performance. “If a fuel doesn’t tick all of ated by Jeffersonville, Ind.-headquartered marine transpor- those boxes, then we struggle to see how it will be adopted,” tation company American Commercial Barge Line (ACBL), he said. “We were very impressed with hydrogen’s emissions likely to move petroleum products in and around Louisiana bene? ts, but the challenges with transporting and storing hy- and Texas. “The global shipping industry has been driving to drogen increased the cost so signi? cantly that we didn’t see decarbonize itself,” Maritime Partners’ CEO, Bick Brooks, compressed hydrogen as a solution moving forward.” said at the 2021 International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans That’s where e1 Marine came in with a solution that serves in December. “It’s a huge challenge given the energy require- as a link allowing easy-to-handle methanol — a top commod- ments for vessels regardless of application. But the winds of ity globally, located in bunker quantities at more than 100 change are blowing, and we want to be at the forefront of that ports — to be converted into power-dense and clean hydrogen change. We took a blank sheet of paper and laid out all of the on board, in real time. available alternatives: lique? ed natural gas (LNG), methanol, Mike Complita, principal in charge and VP of strategic 20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2022

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