Later in April of 2024, a hydrogen-powered ship will begin operations and it will use Toyoda Gosei’s high-pressure tanks.

This hydrogen-powered vessel is called HANARIA and it will be operated by MONTEA-Sea, which is backed by the Mitsui OSK Lines. In order to function effectively and efficiently, the vessel will be equipped with generators that are able to run off of fuel cells and biodiesel. The hydrogen solutions which this vessel will operate off of, will be an excellent step forwards for the hydrogen and marine industry, whilst also providing the opportunity for Toyoda and Toyota Motor Corporation’s hydrogen solutions to be utilised again. This technology has also been used inside the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, that has already also been put to use inside light-duty trucks.

After a lot of development this hydrogen solution was released during 2023 for the first time and at this point, the hydrogen solution was purposefully designed for use within fuel cell trucks. After this version of the hydrogen solution was released, more development was underway, as within a fuel cell vehicle, the tanks have the potential to be filled with an estimated eight times more hydrogen than the passenger fuel cell vehicle tanks which Toyoda Gosei have produced. This extensive development led to the development of this project which will focus on using high-pressure hydrogen tanks to power a Japanese vessel.

It was stated that, ‘Toyota Motor has developed the hydrogen storage modules for the project, combining multiple large tanks to allow for larger amounts of the fuel to be stored and transported “efficiently and conventionally.”’