Article
Nick Nuttall
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Sailing to a Hydrogen Future
By Nick Nuttall
Imagine tens of thousands of high-tech sailing ships, travelling around the world’s oceans, turning the power of the wind into green, clean, hydrogen.
That is the dream of Ben Medland, a UK engineer that formerly worked at BAE Systems and Accenture, who has founded Drift Energy as a mobile renewable energy source.
“Our vision is a flotilla on every ocean able to abate 1 Giggaton of CO2 by 2050,” he told Climate Table, part of Table Media.
Artists impression of the Drift Energy hydrogen-generating ships
The ships will store the hydrogen onboard and when fully laden, supply harbours or refuel big vessels at sea
The technology, which uses wind power to turn a propellor-like turbine to electrically split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, has been tested using a catamaran at Plymouth Harbour on the south coast.
Mr Medland, whose firm is based in Bath, England, says the real breakthrough is the underlining digital algorithm that directs the vessel to sail to places with strong wind speeds and take the hydrogen “harvest” to where it is needed.
The invention has just secured backing from Europe’s venture capital firm Octopus Ventures. The next step is to scale up the design initially to a 1-2 MW ship by 2027 if not before and are currently in discussion with shipyards and regulatory agencies. Eventually, even bigger ships will be built to realize the company’s goals.
Mr Medland is pragmatic about Drift Energy underlining that the technology is not out to replace conventional renewables like offshore wind turbines or solar.
“Drift works on the fringes of the renewable energy transition, handling hard to abate sectors like shipping and hard to reach places like remote coastal communities and islands,” he said.
But he underlines the advantages which include being free from waiting for grid connections and being mobile rather than a static renewable energy sources.
Ben Medland, Founder and CEO of Drift Energy
Drift Energy certainly has its fans. Supporters include America’s Cup yacht designer Daniel Bernasconi and Blue Action Accelerator, which supports the sustainable development of coastal communities.
Madadh MacLaine, Secretary General of the Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association in the UK:” "All the energy maritime shipping requires is at sea. For our association, Drift Energy's solution is key to eliminating shipping’s Green House Gas emissions without conflicting with terrestrial clean energy requirements. "
This article was originally published in Table Media 10.12.2024
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What about forgetting completely these electronic means to propel ships around but to try to think about different types and shapes of sails for ships being able to move even two thousands Chinese containers, full of all kinds of things we don’t need really, harnessed in one mega cargo ship, from China to Rotterdam, with the same speed as the conventional mega ship rotors, using together more gasoline in two hours, than all the cars of a small city would use in a week. I made such an invention and sent it already to a British company trying to find a similar solution to the environmental ravages the big cargo ships still bring each day. Think if you want of screw type balloons of expensive and contractive characters which, under the rule of a computer analyzing the direction of the winds, and the course of the ship, plays continuously with the shapes of all these balloons, situated on the outer brims of the ship’s upper deck, pulling that ship easily away, only by rotating on their axis, slowly or quickly. That’s the idea behind it. Good luck with the hydrogen theory though, if it’s the only way to get to the point of complete clean sailing.
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@johan_ayiter_623 "of all these balloons" ! A good idea! Why not make a review about the idea.
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The vessels, powered by https://footballbrosgame.org wind energy, use a propellor-like turbine to electrically split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen.
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If you may come out with any (maritime) concept generating H2 to provide the Hydrogen motors of such a ship with energy it could be marvellous indeed and on a smaller scale could be used in any homes or vehicles to provide them with H2 generated e-energy ! Success ! As I see further it is just about separating H2 from the seawater. In this way it’s only electrolysing water no more than this. The presence of salt is being essential I suppose. But my dream of providing H2 directly from the atmosphere would be apparently waiting some more decades. Don’t give up ! Good try on ! A little bit complicated and expensive still, it seems to be difficult to get a patent for the process though I guess. Good luck !
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Wow. This is the ingenuity we need in the world. It's a great contribution to sustainable and clean mobility.
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Super interesting solution! I'd love to learn more about Drift Energy on a We Don't Have Time show
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@nicknuttal how does the wind produce clean hydrogen? And is clean hydrogen that is used “inside” the ship?
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@camilla_lind Dear Camilla, as the ships (blown by the wind) sail along they have a turbine under the water, that spins. It generate electricity that splits sea water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is then stored on board and pumped off into a cargo ship that needs it or more often at a harbour to fuel visiting cargo ships (see my second comments below)
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@camilla_lind If you read the article closely, you can see what I wrote------The ships will store the hydrogen onboard and when fully laden, supply harbours or refuel big vessels at sea The technology, which uses wind power to turn a propellor-like turbine to electrically split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, has been tested using a catamaran at Plymouth Harbour on the south coast.