In recent years there have been several attempts to establish a Hydrogen boatBut the British startup Drift is breaking new ground with a ship that is not powered by hydrogen, but by hydrogenproduction.
Drift is developing an autonomous yacht that can produce green hydrogen at sea. It could provide a faster, more efficient way to produce and transport the fuel, especially in remote regions.
“One “One of our main advantages is that we can serve hard-to-reach places,” Ben Medland, founder and CEO of Drift, told TNW. “That's a huge advantage compared to a fixed installation.”
The wind propels the sailboat and turns a turbine under the hull, which sends electricity to an electrolyzer on board. This machine uses electrical current to Decompose seawater into hydrogen and oxygen.
The ships can carry 2 to 4 tons of hydrogen gas per trip. However, the company is researching ways to store the hydrogen in liquid form, which has a much higher density.
After the hydrogen tanks are filled, the boats will return to port to unload and then head out to sea again. They will act as mobile green hydrogen factories.
The energy-producing yachts could in future be used to refuel hydrogen-powered container ships on the high seas or to deliver hydrogen to offshore tankers or ports.
An algorithm of AI Company Faculty determines the best routes for the yachts to maximize the production of green hydrogen.
By combining production and sales in one vehicle – and eliminating the need for a grid connection – the yachts could also save costs.
But Medland, who has a background in systems engineering, stressed that the boats are meant to complement rather than replace larger, centralized facilities. He used the healthcare analogy to explain.
“If large hydrogen plants are the hospitals, then drift boats are the ambulances,” he said.
Last week, Drift announced that it had secured £4.6 million (€5.5 million) in a seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures. The startup also recently received a grant from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency.
Drift has already successfully tested a scaled-down version of its technologyThe startup's plan is to build 58-meter-high giants that can produce up to 150,000 kg of hydrogen per year.
Comments are closed.