H2 cruise ship project gets underway

The memorandum of understanding covers an initial study to assess the feasibility of designing and building such a ship together with determining the related bunkering infrastructure.

Green hydrogen has potential as an emissions-free ship fuel, generating electrical power through a fuel cell and producing only water vapour and heat. A key part of the industry’s decarbonisation plans, the technology is still in its infancy. “Production levels remain low and hydrogen fuel is still far from being available at scale,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of the Cruise Division of MSC Group.

“However, with this project, we’re taking the lead to bring this promising technology to our fleet and the industry while sending the strongest possible signal to the market about how seriously we take our environmental commitments,” he added.

During the next 12 months the three companies will study key factors related to the development of oceangoing hydrogen-powered cruise ships.

These include arranging ship spaces to accommodate hydrogen technologies and fuel cells, technical parameters of onboard systems, calculating the potential greenhouse gas emissions savings, and a technical and economic analysis of hydrogen supply and infrastructure.