A novel hydrogen fuel cell-powered ferry is scheduled to start carrying passengers in the San Francisco Bay in August
Bianca Giacobone
- The Sea Change is a hydrogen fuel cell-powered passenger ferry set to start operating in August.
- The ferry will be part of the San Francisco Bay Ferry network for a six months pilot project.
After hydrogen trains, the time has come to test hydrogen ferries.
The Sea Change, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered passenger ferry, is scheduled to start operating in the San Francisco Bay this coming August.
The $14 million motor vessel is expected to run as part of the San Francisco Bay Ferry network for a six months pilot project intended to explore the viability of hydrogen technology for high-speed passenger ferries.
The hydrogen technology runs thanks to fuel cells — battery-like systems that don't require recharging — which produce electrical energy from the hydrogen in the vessel's tanks. Hydrogen produces heat and electricity when combined with oxygen, and the whole thing only emits water vapor and condensed water as an emission.
The ferry is owned by Switch Maritime, a US maritime investment company, which will lease it to the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority for the pilot project.
Take a look at the Sea Change:
The Sea Change is a 70-foot ferry fueled exclusively by hydrogen.
For 6 months starting in August, it will carry passengers in the San Francisco Bay as part of a pilot project.
The pilot project wants to figure out how viable hydrogen technology is for high-speed passenger ferries.
It's currently undergoing testing by the US Coast Guard.
Once operational, the Sea Change will connect Pier 41 on San Francisco's northern waterfront and the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal.
It will operate as part of the San Francisco Bay Ferry network.
Which already operates 16 renewable diesel ferries.
The Sea Change will do four round trips per day.
Fares are set at $1 each way.
Passengers will book a trip as they would for any other ferry in the network, Thomas Hall, Manager for Public Information & Marketing at SF WETA, told Insider in an email.
The ferry can carry up to 75 passengers.
The fuel is pumped from a tank on the dock...
...into the ferry's 242kg of hydrogen storage tanks.
The construction of the vessel, which was done by American Marine, cost approximately $14 million, and the demonstration pilot service is $2 million, according to Hall.
Other hydrogen ferry projects around the world include a new catamaran ferry with dual-fuel engines that can use hydrogen in Japan, and a ferry using liquid hydrogen in Norway.
As the technology expands, limited access to hydrogen fuel is one of the main challenges.
"But there's some great momentum behind expanding supply and access points," Hall said.
"This project is a good balance of the nitty gritty details of launching a demonstration pilot service and the important overall objective of decarbonizing ferry service in the Bay Area," Hall said.
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