Fuel cell sailboats and motorboats are both making headlines promoting the use of green hydrogen as way to clean up oceans, rivers, lakes and other waterways. I’ve talked about EFOY several times in the past as providing auxiliary power to motor homes and traffic signals.
This time on the Pogo2 yacht the EFOY 2200 provided auxiliary power to keep the ship on course for its 27 day, 4,800 mile journey from France to Portugal to Brazil. Out of 85 yachts in the race, the Pogo2 took 2nd place largely due to the trouble free power provided by the fuel cell for the GPS system, lights, refrigerator and other navigational tools.
The Pogo2 yacht used swappable hydrogen tanks that can be obtained from any one of 1,400 sales points around Europe in both 5 and 10 liter cartridges. A 10-liter cartridge can provide enough power for a typical ship’s onboard systems for 14-days before it has to be swapped out.
Now, in the Austria, a fuel cell is being used to power a motorboat on a lake that forbids the use of gasoline or diesel engines. The boat is a Frauscher 750 St. Tropez powered by a Fronius fuel cell and electric motor.
The Frauscher motorboat uses a swappable 5,000 psi hydrogen tank. The hydrogen itself is made by solar cells, which electrolyze water to create hydrogen and oxygen, making the whole process of motoring upon this lake a very clean adventure indeed.
There is a video on the Motor Boats Monthly website that explains how the fuel cell motorboat works and the company’s plans to commercialize this technology. While many are concerned about cleaning up our highways and byways, our oceans, lakes and river systems also must not be ignored. Hydrogen boats, ships, yachts and even submarines will help keep our waterways cleaner than they are right now.
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