Arrival of the ELEKTRA, hydrogen fuel cell ship enters Berlin Westhafen.
The ELEKTRA arrived in Berlin’s Westhafen.
After almost two years of construction at the shipyard Hermann Barthel GmbH in Derben and the three-day transfer to Berlin’s Westhafen, testing of this unique, innovative and emission-free pusher boat can now begin.
Under the project management of the Department of Design and Operation of Maritime Systems of the TU Berlin, the companies BEHALA – Berliner Hafen- und Lagerhausgesellschaft (logistics), shipyard Hermann Barthel , BALLARD Power Systems (fuel cells), ARGO – ANLEG (hydrogen system), Schiffselektronik Rostock (electr. Energy system), EST-Floattech (battery system) and HGK Shipping (nautical operation) involved in the development and construction and testing of ELEKTRA as partners.
🔥 What about we co-host a webinar? Let's educate, captivate, and convert the hydrogen economy!
Hydrogen Central is the global go-to online magazine for the hydrogen economy, we can help you host impactful webinars that become a global reference on your topic and are an evergreen source of leads. Click here to request more details
The ELEKTRA will serve as a role model as the first emission-free vessel and this energy system is designed to be transferable to a variety of inland waterway and coastal vessel types.
This is not just about the provision of energy for ship propulsion. The pusher boat has its tasks in pushing push convoys, but at the same time the crew lives and lives on board.
In addition to the main drives, energy must also be provided for the temperature control of the rooms and the wheelhouse, the crew cooks and washes on board and the batteries also have “feel-good temperatures” for efficient operation and a long service life.
All this must work with a limited amount of energy carried and without loss of range.
The waste heat of the fuel cells is used by a consistent water cooling and the rooms are heated via a water-to-water heat pump, here the advantage is that the ship always has water with temperatures of over 0 ° C below the keel available.
The use of a self-developed energy management system and a driving assistant support the skipper and logistician in the planning of the missions and the execution of the transports.
With 750 kg of usable gaseous hydrogen at a pressure of 500 bar on board and a battery capacity of 2,500 kilowatt hours, the ship has a range of about 400 kilometers in a thrust convoy with the loaded heavy-lift light URSUS, i.e. in the trades from Berlin to the Rhine/Ruhr, Hamburg and Szczecin, we only need one other land station to supply the ELEKTRA with hydrogen and electricity in addition to the Westhafen.
In both Berlin’s Westhafen and the port of Lüneburg, the first land stations for the hydrogen tanks and the charging current in the required power class of 500 kilowatts will be put into operation in 2023.
With the Industrie- und Gewerbepark Mittelelbe / H2 Green Power & Logistics GmbH, the EBMS department of the TU Berlin has concluded a supply contract for the filling and transport of the tank systems (Multiple Energy Gas Container – MEGC) with green hydrogen until the end of the project period at the end of 2024.
The MEGCs can be exchanged with the on-board crane and the power connection is via a charging gallows on which the cables are routed on the land side.
For the ship’s crew, the handling of the arm-thick cables is therefore very easy and the ship is connected to the charging station in a short time and the pier is free of cables.
The tests will initially take place mainly in the area of the capital region, from 2023 the tests will then also be continued increasingly in long-distance traffic to Hamburg.
We now have the nautical acceptance by the commission of inquiry with the ride in different thrust unit configurations on the Havel in Berlin in front of us and we are then looking forward to the test phases in the project. Thanks for staying up to date with Hydrogen Central.
In the end, we will have learned a lot and we can then also say how future marketable ships in this performance class must be optimally equipped and what the concepts for other ship types and performance classes can look like.
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
Arrival of ELEKTRA, December 8, 2021
