Photo/Illutration A boat equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell system being developed by Yanmar Holdings Co. is shown on Oct. 12 in Osaka’s Konohana Ward. (Kanako Tanaka)

It isn't just carmakers that are hitting the brakes on the era of gasoline-powered models.

Companies that build ship engines are plowing full steam ahead toward a future where vessels set sail on power sources that emit no carbon dioxide (CO2).

Yanmar Holdings Co. completed a hydrogen fuel cell system to enable boats to travel a far longer distance than previously allowed using such technology, it said on Oct. 13.

A boat outfitted with the system that utilizes the same technology as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Mirai fuel cell vehicle cut across Osaka Bay during a demonstration the company held the day before.

“From now, we're gonna go faster,” its pilot said, giving a heads-up. Within 20 seconds, the boat's speed surged from 18 kph to 33 kph.

The most important feature of the new system is that it doesn't emit CO2 or other kind of exhaust gas. 

None of the passengers aboard the boat that can accommodate up to 10 people became seasick despite the rough waves and the boat's rocking, a result that the company attributed to the lack of engine fumes.

The boat’s motor is driven by a fuel cell unit that generates electricity through a chemical reaction of the loaded hydrogen and oxygen. The motor can raise its output more quickly than engines using gasoline and diesel oil, according to Yanmar representatives.

Iwatani Corp. is forging ahead with the development of a similar product.

With an eye toward contributing to the realization of a greener society, the two corporations are looking to make their eco-friendly alternatives available for commercial use by 2025, the year of the Osaka Kansai Expo.

“As the era has started where people have to use novel sorts of power, companies are starting to take on new challenges,” said Tsuyoshi Ode, a special professor of control engineering at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. “Overall social changes, such as infrastructure redevelopment, are essential as well.”

Yanmar started committing itself fully to developing an eco-friendly boat three years ago. 

The company said it increased the pressure applied to hydrogen kept in a tank to the world’s highest level so that the finished vessel can navigate at 18 kph for three hours, triple that for the existing model.

In a similar attempt, Iwatani in August began working with Kansai Electric Power Co. and the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to create a hydrogen fuel cell boat.

The two companies’ moves come amid the global trend of reducing CO2 emissions from vessels.

The International Maritime Organization states that greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping should be reduced to zero “as soon as possible in this century.”

Likewise, the Japanese government has announced plans to make the nation totally carbon-free by 2050 and established a 2-trillion-yen ($17.54 billion) fund to help strengthen development of nonpolluting technologies.

Of the fund, a total of 35 billion yen is allocated for inventing engines and other fittings for ships fueled by hydrogen and ammonia.

Fuel cells’ limited level of capacity and output, however, renders it difficult for them to be adopted for long trips by large vessels.

For that reason, for the time being, the fuel cell system can only be mounted on tiny, short-distance boats.

With that in mind, Yanmar and other entities have already started efforts to develop a new hydrogen-powered engine with a far larger output.

A number of other challenges remain before widespread use of hydrogen can be utilized to fuel vessels.

Hydrogen supply bases have yet to be introduced for practical use of the technology, and safety must be ensured in connection with hydrogen injected into ships.

Whether there will be an increased cost associated with using the new energy source and how much it might be is also still unclear.

(This article was written by Kanako Tanaka and Yo Noguchi.)

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