Project Summary
Hydrogen’s potential as a fuel to decarbonise small to medium sized workboats and leisure craft is a significant focus area for the maritime industry. However, small ports and marinas are often congested areas with a high volume of commercial and leisure users, where achieving the required standoff distances and safety radiuses for liquid hydrogen fuel decanting is extremely difficult. This project will develop new processes and hardware for liquid hydrogen bunkering in congested jetties and small port environments, delivering modular and mobile solutions which won’t require planning permission or permanent infrastructure solutions.
Project Achievements
The project was divided into four work packages: Project Management, Technical Design, Equipment Manufacturing, and Site Assembly. The technical design phase started with a literature review of safety standards for shoreside hydrogen bunkering systems, a HAZID workshop, and a critical design review of the hydrogen bunkering system. ACUA also collaborated with Gexcon for a blast and dispersion analysis for the hydrogen-powered H-USV whilst alongside the jetty. Based on these findings, a concept of operations (CONOPS) for bunkering in ports was developed. Although some components faced delivery delays, a dry run demonstrated the hydrogen bunkering system’s operational feasibility, with full testing planned in the future.
Conclusions
The project successfully completed designs and operational procedures for a modular hydrogen bunkering system, with key learnings from a simulated dry run at Turnchapel Wharf. ACUA can now undertake hydrogen bunkering for its fleet of H-USVs in-house, reducing operational risks as the company looks to expand and operate from multiple ports and harbours around the UK to support small island and coastal communities. This project has also advanced the overall hydrogen bunkering system to TRL5. The project will support small UK ports in connecting them to the hydrogen economy, and foster growth in the marine autonomy sector. Hydrogen as a maritime fuel will reduce pollution and enable safer bunkering in congested environments.
Next Steps
The next steps for the project involve receiving the final components, completing the full assembly of the hydrogen bunkering system, and conducting live trials with hydrogen as part of ACUA’s broader testing and evaluation of the H-USV. These trials aim to support commercial demonstrations involving hydrogen bunkering in H2 2025. The system is currently at TRL5, with plans to progress to TRL6 through prototype demonstrations in January/February 2025, in line with the H-USV’s sea acceptance tests, and reach TRL7-8 after the commercial trials. ACUA does not plan to sell the bunkering system as an independent commercial product but may explore licensing options later. For now, the system will support H-USV operations, and ACUA has engaged potential end-customers across the short-sea shipping and offshore renewable energy sectors, who have expressed interest in the H-USV’s logistics and support capabilities for offshore wind farms, as well as the inspection and maintenance of turbines, cables, and pipelines.
