Japanese diesel manufacturer Yanmar and its subsidiary Yanmar Power Technology will partner with Toyota to deliver a hydrogen fuel cell system for maritime applications
Yanmar said it has addressed various regional demands for emissions control regulations by developing dual-fuel engines and cleaner diesel engine technologies and said its challenge is to develop future powertrains that will use hydrogen as a fuel.
To this end the company will work in collaboration with Toyota Motor Corporation as part of a memorandum of understanding between both companies to develop a hydrogen fuel cell system for maritime applications. The cell system is based on fuel cell technology for automobiles.
Toyota will supply most of the powertrain from its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell production line, and Yanmar will build a prototype passenger boat to test the technology’s marine potential.
Yanmar said it aims to install the maritime fuel cell system on its vessel and begin a field demonstration test by the end of Q4 2020 and the company plans to expand the technology for a variety of applications and deployments.
Japan is looking to hydrogen as a viable long-term fuel option and as part of a national strategy to test alternative marine fuels. Mirai is a hydrogen fuel cell automobile manufactured by Toyota. In February, the company announced it had developed a fuel cell system based on Mirai for martime vessels. The first delivery will be on Energy Observer, a former racing catamaran now converted to run on renewables. In addition to Toyota, Japanese owner Tokyo Kisen collaborated with e5 Lab to develop a hydrogen-fuelled tug.
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