Corvus Energy launched its gas-safe marine fuel cell product, the Corvus Pelican Fuel Cell System, at the recent NOR-Shipping exhibition in Norway.

The Corvus Pelican Fuel Cell system is the result of the H2NOR research project, that started in 2021, which was initiated by Corvus Energy, Toyota and other partners to fast-track the development and production of sustainable and scalable Maritime Hydrogen Fuel Cell Systems.

Using Toyota’s proven fuel cell technology, operational in more than 20,000 cars, and adding safety levels needed for marine, the Pelican FCS can be installed anywhere onboard a vessel.

The modular and flexible system is designed to be Inherently Gas Safe, meaning that the surrounding machinery space is considered gas safe under all conditions. This significantly reduces the requirements of safety support systems and ventilation, thereby enabling more efficient integration of the FCS inside the ship’s hull.

Geir Bjørkeli, CEO of Corvus Energy, said, “Our mission is to power a clean future, and through the years, we have been pioneers on a lot of different vessel types. However, batteries cannot take us all the way. If you want to sail zero-emission, you will need to bring clean energy in a different format.

“We strongly believe hydrogen is the natural choice for shorter and medium-distance routes as this is the most energy-efficient way. The safety level as well as the flexibility and modular design will revolutionize marine power going forward.

Corvus Energy fuel cell systems are ideally combined with Corvus Energy batteries to form a hybrid power system. Energy Storage Systems handle load variations perfectly, and fuel cell systems perform best at stable loads.

Corvus Energy is now developing CoPilot, an application for fuel cell and battery systems, supporting system integrators to optimally distribute power between fuel cell systems and batteries. The results are prolonged lifetime, more efficient operation, simplified integration effort and reduced total cost of ownership.

Speakers at last week’s product launch included Norwegian Minister of Ocean Policy, Bjørnar Skjæran and CEO of Corvus, Geir Bjørkeli, as well as participants from Toyota and Wilhelmsen.