It has been announced that Freeport East will receive funding worth £1.44m, in order to help it develop green hydrogen technology for high-powered workboats. The plan for this project is to complete this goal through the use of low-carbon storage and propulsion.

The project that is currently underway is called The Hydrogen Zero Emission Maritime (HyZEM) project and it has recently been provided with funding from Innovate UK. Plus, it has also been stated that the project will receive a similar sum from Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy and Environment and Water.

The partnerships which will make this project feasible, were created by Freeport East and the agreements include UK and Australian businesses which are focused on green hydrogen storage and propulsion technologies. The aim for the companies specializing in this field, is to reduce the risks when it comes to deployment of new technologies, which are being used in the green marine sector.

Freeport has made it clear that one of their main goals in facilitating this project, is to be able to support deployment in UK ports. They aim to do this through the number of tugs, offshore wind vessels and workboats available in Harwich and Felixstowe, as they want to make these technologies of particular relevance, especially throughout this project.

Another aim of this project, is to demonstrate, through the international collaboration, the applications and benefits for green hydrogen storage and propulsion on vessels. This includes things such as bunkering technology, port storage, refueling infrastructure and finally, how this combination will effectively and efficiently support local supply chains.

It has been agreed that Steamology, who delivers scalable and modular solutions for industrial steam heat and power within the hydrogen industry, will lead the partnership. The other companies participating in this project will include, the National Composites Centre (NCC), Duodrive Limited, Chartwell Marine Limited and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) catapult.

Simultaneously to this project, it has also been agreed that the Australian sister project, will take place and this one will be led by Rux Energy Australia.

Chief Executive of Freeport East, Steve Beel, commented, “This news highlights the rapid innovation-drive growth occurring within the Freeport and marks the third consortium funding success Freeport East has achieved in the past year. Freeport East is demonstrating how we can be an enabler of green technology solutions and support UK businesses to succeed overseas. These innovations will also support our broader efforts to drive transport decarbonisation at both the local and international scale.”

Steamology CEO, Matt Candy mentioned that they are “delivering the world’s first zero emission hydrogen steam turbine propulsion, 130 years after ‘Turbinia’, the world’s first steam turbine steam ship.”