Dutch college students cross the North Sea in a hydrogen boat – however you received’t be becoming a member of them anytime quickly

A team of students from Delft University of Technology has made history by crossing the North Sea in a boat powered entirely by hydrogen.

The Hydro Motion team from TU Delft set off from Breskens in the Netherlands on July 11th and faced 160 km of rough seas. Shortly after the start of the journey, however, the ship suffered a defect in the cooling pump and had to dock in Belgium for repairs.

After some trial and error, the problem was solved and the crew set sail again. Twelve hours later, they reached Ramsgate in the UK. The boat, which travels at 40 km/h, managed the journey using only 12 kg of hydrogen as fuel.

The Hydro Motion team celebrates at the dock in Ramsgate. Photo credit: TU Delft

The students began building the test ship in August last year. Everything – from the carbon fiber hull to the hydrogen propulsion – was built from scratch.

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The eight-meter-long ship is powered by a fuel cell that Hydrogen from three storage bottles and converts it into energy. This energy is fed into a battery pack, which in turn drives the engine.

A member of the student team lowers a hydrogen tank into the hull of the hydrogen boat prototype. Photo credit: TU Delft

For almost 20 years, students at TU Delft have been working on more environmentally friendly boat designs. For over a decade, the university has been driving the development of solar-powered boats and switched to hydrogen four years ago.

Hydrogen power

The Hydro Motion project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of hydrogen as a fuel for ships, which are among the most difficult modes of transport to decarbonise. The global shipping industry contributes 3% of global CO2 emissions – more than aviation.

Hydrogen is the “best way to store green energy,” said the Hydro Motion team at its website. “When converted into fuel cells, the energy storage density is about 235 times higher than that of industry-standard lithium-ion battery cells.”

Hydrogen boats have made great progress in recent years. In 2021, Norway launched MF Hydrathe world's first hydrogen-powered ferry. The country recently began to build two more of the ships.

However, most of today's hydroboats are very similar to those of TU Delft – they are experimental prototypes that are not designed for commercial use.

The main problems in bringing them to market are costs and infrastructure.

Hydrogen, especially the green variant produced using renewable energy, is not available in large quantities today. In addition, there are several technical challenges in handling the fuel safely and making it cost-competitive with diesel.