ACUA Ocean’s hydrogen-powered unmanned surface vessel (USV) Pioneer has successfully completed what the company said is the world’s first continuous, remote 24-hour offshore operation on zero emissions.
ACUA Ocean said the sea trials demonstrate the commercial potential of hydrogen power for maritime operations.
During the trial, Pioneer sailed to the Eddystone Lighthouse, 12 nautical miles from her home berth at Turnchapel Wharf, Plymouth, and performed continued operations at sea for a full 24 hours under hydrogen-electric power, with Cattewater Harbour's Amy Jane on station as her support vessel.
The USV's autonomous systems, stability and hydrogen performance were monitored continuously, generating data now being shared with research partners including the University of Southampton and MarRI-UK.
The trials followed the USV's recent certification under the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Workboat Code Edition 3 Annex 2, the first such approval for a remotely operated, hydrogen-powered vessel.
The 14.2-metre, 25GT Pioneer is the first vessel in a new series of USVs built by Isle of Wight-based Aluminium Marine Consultants to a design developed by naval architect John Kecsmar of Ad Hoc Marine Design.
ACUA Ocean said the craft’s platform stability, payload versatility, portability and scalability meet the need of end users for high-quality data and operational availability and reliability in open ocean conditions but delivered at a fraction of the cost of larger crewed or autonomous platforms.