With our partners, we are developing a containerised and productised version of our 50kW engine operating on Hydrogen as an Auxiliary Power Unit demonstrator, to prove that our technology can be operated safely in the Maritime environment. This will be a valuable asset and precursor to planned 200-400 kW APUs and 1-10 MW main engines.
The APU will have at its heart, our revolutionary hydrogen combustion engine. By pioneering the use of technical ceramics in combustion engines, we have eliminated the major limiting factor to engine efficiency. Our engines have a break thermal efficiency of 70%, nearly double what is achieved by modern state-of-the-art engines which massively reduces fuel consumption and thus, reduces fuel costs. To deliver the same power output, our fuel consumption would be reduced by 45%.
Above a certain air-to-fuel ratio, hydrogen combustion emits zero emissions, i.e. negligible CO2, NOx and PM. Combined with world-beating efficiency, we believe Carnot engines will be the future propulsion and auxiliary power technology of choice within the Maritime industry.
The APU will go onboard a Carisbrooke Shipping K-Class vessel and underdo a 40-day sea trial through the Northern European, Baltic and Mediterranean seas. This will bring the technology up to TRL 6 and help validate the emission savings that we predicted during our CMDC 1 Grant project, namely targeting annual emission savings of:
- 1,740 tons of CO2e
- 357 CO2e tons of SO2
- 470t CO2e tons of PM2
- 178 CO2e tons of NOx
We will be working closely with our Classification Society partners Bureau Veritas, the Maritime Coastguard Agency, Insurance underwriters, charterers and Port authorities throughout the process to deliver the project safely and within the regulatory framework.