GEAR | Japanese manufacturer completes first 70MPa high-pressure ship refueling with hydrogen

Yanmar Power Technology (YPT), a group company of Yanmar Holdings, has conducted the world’s first 70MPa high-pressure hydrogen refueling of a ship using a demonstration test boat equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell system.

The test boat cruised on a route around the island of the Osaka-Kansai World Exposition 2025 and other tourist spots on the coast of Osaka.

The 70 MPa high-pressure hydrogen refueling was carried out in cooperation with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, using a specially licensed high-pressure facility and a newly developed prototype long hydrogen refueling hose.

The 70MPa high-pressure refueling resulted in more than three times longer cruising time compared to the previous refueling process. The results will be utilised for the market deployment of hydrogen fuel cell systems as well as the study of hydrogen refueling infrastructure for ships.

YPT is developing a 300kW-class maritime fuel cell system incorporating fuel cell modules supplied by Toyota Motor Corporation, addressing the potential customer demands such as ones relating to the Carbon-Neutral Port concept of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Yanmar aims to obtain a type approval from classification societies so that the system can be installed in various types of ships with global customers towards a planned launch to market in 2023.