The recent fuel cell (FC) development worldwide has always been accompanied by a number of studies and projects investigating the applications of FCs onboard ships. Almost all possible FC types and different fuels such as hydrogen, natural gas (liquefied or pressurized), liquefied pressurized gas (LPG), methanol, and maritime diesel have been considered. These applications of FCs are still mainly focused on onboard power generation (OPU) and propulsion. The types of ships being considered vary from sailing and other leisure boats to ferries, naval surface ships, submarines, and special underwater vehicles such as those used for research or military applications | Ships Fuel Cells W Winkler Hamburg University of Applied Sciences Hamburg Germany 2009 Elsevier . All rights reserved. Introduction in Applications and Technologies The recent fuel cell FC development worldwide has always been accompanied by a number of studies and projects investigating the applications of FCs onboard ships. Almost all possible FC types and different fuels such as hydrogen natural gas liquefied or pressurized liquefied pressurized gas LPG methanol and maritime diesel have been considered. These applications of FCs are still mainly focused on onboard power generation OPU and propulsion. The types of ships being considered vary from sailing and other leisure boats to ferries naval surface ships submarines and special underwater vehicles such as those used for research or military applications. Although civil utilization of FCs is gaining increasing importance the naval developments are the clear technology drivers. The main FC types of interest are proton-exchange membrane fuel cells PEMFC molten carbonate fuel cells MCFC and solid oxide fuel cells SOFC . Table 1 gives an overview of the main outlines of FC types fuels and applications that have already been considered. Leisure boats have been the first application of PEMFC with hydrogen as a fuel. Sailing boats have already been equipped with OPU and motorboats have been operated with an electric motor driven by a hydrogen-supplied PEMFC. The low power density of storing hydrogen restricts the hydrogen-fed PEMFC to applications onboard vessels that operate close to filling stations for example at a harbor. This was the main reason to study and develop hydrogen-supplied harbor ferries that are required to cover only a short range. Table 1 Maritime fuel cells FCs types first applications and fuels Applications PEMFC MCFC SOFC Sailing boat PG H2a Motor boat PR H2a Ferry PR H2 NG Yacht PG LP MD PG LP MD Cruise ship PG LP MD PG LP MD Cargo ships PG LP MD PG LP MD Naval ship PG PR MD PG PR MD .
