DNV joins Euro cluster of R&D projects

Clean energy is high on the international agenda and noteworthy resources are put in respective research and development. Germany, through the Federal Ministries for Transportation, Economics, Research, and Environment, has established the National Innovation Programme on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies that has a total budget of 1,4billion Euro including 48% public funding.

In this framework, a cluster of R&D projects dedicated to maritime applications, “e4ships”, has been funded with a total budget of 51 million Euros. The e4ships cluster, kicked off on 1July 2009 onboard ‘AidaLuna’ in Warnemünde, consists of a set of four projects. The PaXell project in particular, in which DNV has a crucial role, aims to design, manufacture and physically install molten carbonate fuel cell stacks for auxiliary powering in two new build cruise vessels, one under DNV class.

The German shipbuilding industry, namely Meyer Werft, Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Lürssen Werft, MTU Onsite Energy, and others invited DNV to lead the safety work-package in PaXell, and to drive a key contribution in developing and improving modelling and simulation technologies for fuel cells and fuel cell stacks as part of ship systems.

This joint R&D project between DNV and yards that are market leaders and technology drivers in their business is a result of long-term collaboration and consistent high quality service delivery. For the project execution, DNV coordinates top competences across business areas and across countries.

Jan Tellkamp, Project Manager R&D in Germany, says “To realise DNV?s participation in a German R&D project of this scale is a great success. The opportunity to contribute to the development of new and safe technology in Germany opens great avenues.”

Dr. Nikolaos Kakalis, Head of DNV Research & Innovation Greece, Piraeus, says “Fuel cells are part of a greener future. Although the way is full of scientific and technological challenges, with joint R&D projects like PaXell we make innovation tangible”.

The PaXell project is the next step ahead in the pioneering work of DNV towards greener and low-carbon shipping. It can be seen as the continuation of the work of another Norwegian-German joint industry project, FellowSHIP. And it is only last month that FellowSHIP passed an important milestone with the installation of a full-scale fuel cell stack onboard the supply vessel ‘Viking Lady’, the first merchant vessel ever to test fuel cell technology onboard.