A Game-Changing Maritime Delivery from PowerCell Group

Marine 3 minute read

In the past months, preparations for the largest delivery from PowerCell Group yet have been taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden: a 3 MW zero-emission fuel cell marine power solution to a superyacht built by a European shipyard. How did this happen? And what’s the impact on the maritime industry?  

Our Marine segment Manager, Johan Burgren, shares the story:

“In 2018, we met with the client’s team and saw the potential of building a solution meeting their technical requirements around our 125kW fuel cell stack. Presenting the concept eventually led to a signed deal, evolving it into a development project. The project enriched our company with invaluable knowledge, fostering technological breakthroughs and enabling organic growth to establish our dream production facilities.“

“We had around 1000 questions about the initial design and how to practically turn the drawings into a concept, but by asking good ones and answering them one by one, we eventually made it work,” says the initial technical project leader, Ylva Alnegren, Development Engineer.

The challenge was fitting everything within a given confined space, accommodating connections while ensuring safety, classification, and reliability. Previously, fuel cells were only available in systems of a couple of 100 kW, up to 800 kW at most, making our modular multi-megawatt solution a groundbreaking advancement. 

Arvid Dyvermark, Project Design Lead Engineer, worked on the mechanical design, drawing up the foundation of the project: “We had a great collaboration with the production team, coming up with new ideas based on other products in our portfolio, leading to breakthroughs that turned the concept into reality. The limitations in the form factor pushed us to innovate, eventually coming up with a solution, not only saving space but also improving other things, such as the serviceability, significantly.”

The delivery represents the culmination of several development phases. Quality and compliance took precedence over speed, and the process involved numerous stakeholders, setting new standards in safety and integration benefiting the whole maritime industry as it’s heading toward sustainable shipping. 

Thomas Saleman, Senior Development Engineer, has been a cornerstone in making sure we comply with class societies, following their standards and helping them set new ones through informing them about our technology and solutions. “The biggest milestone was the full design approval. Passing the first factory acceptance test (FAT) was also a big step,” Thomas states. 

But what’s a big project without some fun celebrating the achievements? Niklas Augustsson, Development Engineer, the main developer of the system software, remembers a certain bet: “When we first tested the system, we said we would buy as many kilograms of chocolate as the output of kW. We ended up buying 190 kg of chocolate since it all worked as we hoped it would, even though it might not have been entirely expected.”

 

“In IMO’s pursuit of net-zero emissions and the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) taking effect January 1, 2024, this marks a significant milestone in showing that hydrogen fuel cells are ready to fuel maritime decarbonization,” Johan Burgren concludes.

 

To innovate and break new ground takes time and persistence, but also a lot of talent, and that’s where we at PowerCell Group excel. If you are interested in making a real difference in the transition to green energy while also having fun, come join us! Visit our career site here.