Our Applications

Maritime mobility of the future navigates with emission-free hydrogen fuel cell drive on board: Proton Motor successfully delivered its high-tech innovation HyShip^® 72 in January 2022. For the largest European shipbuilding group “Fincantieri S.p.A.”, based in Trieste, two fully redundant HyShip^® 72 product designs were primarily adapted for the power supply of the electric powertrain and other consumers of the “ZEUS” ship (Zero Emission Ultimate Ship).

The core of a singular HyShip^® 72 are two integrated Proton Motor modules HyStack^® 400-120. Both systems work redundant to each other. They will be supplemented with a battery system and the hydrogen storage system based on metal hydride to an emission-free electric drive train. The multiple applications provide power supply for recreational, passenger, cargo, working, military ships and submarines.

The “Zemships” project was launched as an EU-funded joint project by nine companies and institutions. The “FCS Alsterwasser” has been tested by “Alster Touristik GmbH” for its practicality in regular service between 2008 and 2014. For the passenger ferry in the Port of Hamburg, Proton Motor developed a propulsion system with two 48 kW fuel cells, which power the engine via the intermediate storage of the battery with an output of up to 100 kW (approx. 130 hp).

To date, maritime applications have mainly been in smaller vessels with an engine power of up to 5 kW. The aim of “Zemships” was to collect operating data for the scientific evaluation of sustainable energy efficiency in order to test possible fuel cell suitability in more powerful ship types.