A new report has suggested that there are no major obstacles in the way of developing ships which can be run on hydrogen.

The EU-funded New H Ship project has stated that hydrogen could become a viable solution for the shipping industry, with fuel cells one way of powering a new fleet of emission-free ships.

However, while the report concluded that hydrogen-powered ships could be a viable option, it stated that there are a number of different difficulties to be overcome compared to the development of fuel cell and hydrogen-powered vehicles on land.

Hjalti Pall Ingolfsson, from Icelandic New Energy, which is one of the project's partner companies, commented that a big issue to be dealt with would be the storage of hydrogen on ships, given that there would be no opportunity to refill them when out to sea.

"There are different sized vessels with some of them going out just for one day, while others might go out for a week or even a month. So we need to be able to store the hydrogen aboard," he explained.

Although the New H Ship scheme has suggested a 100-tonne ship could be powered by hydrogen if at sea for no more than a week, it has yet to find solutions for heavier ships and those which will be at sea for longer.

Ÿ Adfero Ltd