Hyseas III consortium members met in Brussels from 6-7 December to report on project progress, timelines and to agree on key decisions. The meeting on the first day was held in Scotland House, home of Scotland Europa who promote Scottish interests in Europe.

The consortium were given an overview of the drivetrain single line diagram by Kongsberg Marine, after which the number of fuel cells and batteries to be used in the design was finalised. It was also agreed to use Lloyds Register (LR) as the class society since they are already working with Ferguson Marine on the current Shapinsay ferry on the Hydime project.

DLR then gave an overview of the extensive work they had done on future market analysis, looking at stakeholders, the potential size of the market for hydrogen ferries and the market drivers for adoption of hydrogen.

The following day, the consortium met at the offices of the European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA) where our project officer, Renata Kadric had also invited members from DG Research and FCH JU (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking).

There ensued a lively debate about the relative merits of fuel cells and batteries (which will be the subject of a separate post) as well as questions about the longevity of the fuel cells. It emerged that the fuel cells being used in the project have covered millions of km in buses around Europe, but also that specific applications on London buses have reached the 30,000 operating hour mark.