Review of green hydrogen technologies application in maritime transport

ABSTRACT

Maritime transport contributes 90% to the international trade. However, it still relies heavily on fossil fuels to secure its energy needs, hence, emitting greenhouse gases. Consequently, the need for sustainable and clean fuel is crucial. This article reviews the possible shipboard methods for green hydrogen production, its storage and consumption by various marine propulsion systems. Solar and wind-based hydrogen production methods on board ships are bounded by their limited availability during the day. While recovery energy requires only a modification of the propulsion system to benefit from the energy excess and produce green hydrogen. The use of ammonia as hydrogen medium storage and hydrogen solid storage are promising options due to their matching characteristics to hydrogen properties. Internal combustion engines are widely used in maritime transport and are appropriate for fueling with hydrogen. Finally, life-cycle assessment studies demonstrate the benign environmental impact of green hydrogen despite its expensiveness.

KEYWORDS:

• Green hydrogen production chain
• ships
• internal combustion engine
• fuel cell
• LCA

Authors’ Contributions

Doha Elrhoul: Conceptualization, Writing – Original Draft.

Manuel Romero Gómez: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – Reviewing and Editing.

Manuel Naveiro: Supervision, Writing – Reviewing and Editing.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.