Havyard hydrogen zero-emission ship

Lars Conradi Andersen, vice president of sales, says that through this pilot project for a European client, Havyard will combine the company’s expertise in hydrogen energy systems and ship design.

“The framework for this contract is to develop a ship that uses hydrogen-based fuel as its primary energy source while at the same time giving the client an effective and safe ship,” said Mr Andersen. “The goal is to design a large ship that can sail longer distances with zero emissions.”

Havyard has now established the company Havyard Hydrogen as a spin-off of the company’s R&D work in the area of hydrogen propulsion for large vessels that has been carried out over many years, for example through the Pilot-E project FreeCO2ast.

Havyard’s digital twin

The European client has enquired about Havyard’s vessel operations studies and the possibility of using Havyard Ocean LAB to create a digital twin of the ship and put it ‘in operation’ on a virtual ocean. This allows experimentation with hundreds of alternatives to clarify the basic size and framework conditions for the ship.

The client can then select the best alternatives and the process continues with quality assurance and documentation of the variables of the ships that have made it to the final round. Finally, a digital copy is made of both the ship and the planned route including all information about weather and wind, current and wave data. In this way, the ship has been in digital operation before it has even been built, and all adjustments can be made to ensure maximal efficiency in terms of both the environment and budget.