Energy observer 2: The new cargo ship powered by liquid hydrogen

May 4, 2022
2:41 pm

Victorien Erussad once again wishes to dig his name into the history by launching the Energy Observer 2 vessel, a new generation of the autonomous laboratory vessel capable of producing its own hydrogen through surplus renewable energy.

The entrepreneur announced during the One Ocean Summit in Brest, that he’s planning to launch a cargo ship powered by hydrogen and capable of producing it itself by 2025. The Energy Observer 2 is expected to be able to transport up to 5,000 tons of goods without any emissions. “We are no longer on an exploration ship but on an industrial cargo ship”, explained the inventor.

Several international partners contributing to this revolutionary project:

The Air Liquide group will be responsible for controlling production, storage, distribution and safekeeping of liquid hydrogen.

The maritime transport and logistics leader CMA-CGM is planned to be the first tester of the vessel and takes charge of the commercial and operational aspects.

The recent industrial subsidiary EODev, which was born following the research work of the Energy Observer in order to develop accessible and marinized systems. As well as other renowned firms, companies and institutes in the field.

Frédéric Moncany de Saint-Aignan, President of the French Maritime Cluster, declared that “with this first multipurpose ‘0 emission’ cargo ship, which will embark and validate innovative technologies at sea, it is the entire collective of shipowners, shipyards, equipment manufacturers, energy companies, ports, service companies, academics and scientists grouped together in the new Institute for the Eco-energy Transition of the Maritimes (I-T2EM) which will benefit from feedback and the Energy Observer 2 technological and operations aspects“.

Four times larger than its sibling, the ship is planned to be fully electric and will be equipped with batteries. It will be 120 meters long, 22 meters wide and will have a loading capacity of 5,000 tons of goods, which corresponds to 240 containers.

To generate electricity, it will be equipped with liquid hydrogen tanks, and it will have sailing assistance. On this note, Victorien Erussad expressed that “if we manage to demonstrate that with this technology we can transport goods with zero emissions, potentially, we have the possibility of decarbonizing around a third of the worl’s fleet”.

Energy Observer 2: Technical sheet.