Green Marine UK’s maritime initiative aiming to retrofit crew transfer vessels (CTVs) with hydrogen, fuel cells, and battery, to cut emissions while servicing offshore wind farms, has been granted approval in principle (AiP) by RINA.
Green Marine UK revealed that the first phase of Project Verdant, involving a preliminary design and feasibility study, has been completed and deemed viable, opening the door to subsequent project phases seeking to execute design, engineering, and sea trials.
Project Verdant’s conceptual design incorporates hydrogen fuel cells connected to electric motors, working in conjunction with existing diesel-fuelled engines, which can be shut down to enable zero emission operation at slow speed while servicing offshore wind farms.
This hybrid system could reduce the vessel’s CO2 emissions by up to 30 per cent and NOx emissions by up to 40 per cent, with CTVs operating in loiter mode for long periods at a time, according to the company.
Jason Schofield, Managing Director of Green Marine UK, noted that obtaining AiP was a key objective for Project Verdant, providing confidence in the CTVs’ ability to operate safely in UK waters in accordance with the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) regulations and RINA rules.
“With technical feedback supplied by RINA we now have all the necessary input to progress to the detailed design and implementation phase. Retrofitting CTVs in the manner prescribed by Project Verdant provides a means of significantly de-risking the implementation and testing of hydrogen fuel-cell vessels in the coastal environment. Once the concept has been proven up, there is potential to rapidly replicate. This would enable economies of scale to be leveraged and remove barriers to adoption,” Schofield stated.
David Lynch, Business Development Director of RINA UK Wind & Marine Offshore, said the AiP of the hydrogen-fuelled CTV is a milestone in the wind industry assuring greener service maintenance.
Led by Green Marine UK, this Innovate UK-funded project is supported by Waves Group and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). Energys helped design and provide engineering and modelling, while Engineered Marine Systems (EMS) supplied a design for the battery room.
According to the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC), the offshore support sector will be worth around GBP 26 billion (USD 33.34 billion) by 2050, and an additional 1,200 vessels will be needed to service the UK industry and support the transition to net zero. Approximately 400 CTVs are said to be currently operating in offshore wind farms around the UK and Europe, and this could increase to 700 by 2030.