Green Marine UK will retrofit crew transfer vessels (CTVs) with hydrogen, fuel cells and a battery to cut emissions when servicing offshore wind farms.

The initiative has been granted Approval in Principle (AiP) by RINA, enabling Green Marine UK to execute basic design, detailed engineering and tests in the field.

Phase one of Project Verdant has been completed and deemed viable, which involved a preliminary design and feasibility study, opening the door for sea trials.

The conceptual design incorporated hydrogen fuel cells connected to electric motors, working in conjunction with existing diesel-fuelled engines. Energys helped design and provide engineering and modelling, whilst Engineered Marine Systems (EMS) supplied a design for the battery room.

H2 View understands that initial findings proved the hybrid system could reduce the vessel’s CO2 emissions by up to 30% and NOx emissions by up to 40%.

Obtaining the AiP was a key objective for Green Marine UK, according to the company’s Managing Director, Jason Schofield. It provided confidence in the CTVs ability to operate safely in UK waters per the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) regulations.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Green Marine UK will be leading Project Verdant with support from the Innovate UK-funded project including maritime consultancy Waves Group and European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).

Waves Group Engineering Director, Jeremy Panes, explained, “The system is designed to enhance vessel redundancy and flexibility by utilising locations where hydrogen is, or will be, readily available.

“This approach creates a test bed to advance maritime decarbonisation in a challenging sector without significantly impacting the vessel’s operational profile.”

Findings have shown that the shipping industry is responsible for 2.5% of the globe’s CO2 emissions, but the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) aim to cut these emissions by 50% by 2050.