An alliance to design and build is born the world's first hydrogen-powered cruise ship. The group is part of it MSc, Fincantieri e Snam, who announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding on Monday. The three companies will initially carry out a feasibility study to examine the feasibility of building the vessel and related storage infrastructure. Among the aspects to be explored are the organization of the spaces on board to house the new H2 technologies and fuel cells, the definition of the technical parameters of the on-board systems, the calculation of the potential savings on greenhouse gas emissions and an analysis technical and economic aspects of hydrogen supply and related infrastructure.
"The goal is to promote the use of hydrogen in maritime transport to achieve decarbonisation and attract public and private investments necessary to make it available on a large scale", reads the note.
“Hydrogen fuel is still far from being available on a large scale – he explains Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Group Cruises – With this project we want to introduce this promising technology into our fleet and the industry, while sending the strongest possible signal to the market about how seriously we take our commitments to the environment. As we advance with the development of the necessary technology I am sure that energy suppliers will also accelerate production, and governments and the public sector will step in with the necessary support for a project that is fundamental for the decarbonisation of cruising and navigation”. MSC aims to have zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
“Every opportunity to develop new solutions and technologies is a source of growth for us – he said Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri – This allows us to offer our customers the best of innovation to help minimize environmental impact”.
Marco Alvera, CEO of Snam, underlines instead that "maritime transport today represents around 3% of CO2 emissions globally" and that "the use of hydrogen can contribute to achieving the goal of zero net emissions in this sector as well as in all those hard-to-abbot".
