SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The world’s first hydrogen-powered commercial passenger ferry will begin service in San Francisco Bay as part of a plan to phase out diesel-fueled ships and reduce global-warming carbon emissions, California officials announced Friday as they demonstrated the vessel.
The 70-foot (21-meter) catamaran, MV Sea Change, will transport up to 75 passengers along the waterfront between Pier 41 and the city’s ferry terminal starting July 19, officials said. The service, part of a pilot program, will be free for six months.
“This is going to have a big impact because this is not the last port of call,” said Jim Wunderman, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which operates commuter ferries in the bay. “If we manage this well, we’re going to see more of these vessels in our fleet and in other fleets across the U.S. and around the world.”
The SeaChange can travel approximately 300 nautical miles and operate for 16 hours before needing to refuel. Fuel cells combine oxygen and hydrogen in an electrochemical reaction to generate electricity, producing water as a by-product.
Officials say the technology could help clean up shipping, which accounts for about 3% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions — less than those produced by cars, trucks, trains and planes but still significant and growing.
Frank Wallach, president and CEO of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association, said the ferry is significant because greenhouse gas emissions from shipping are difficult to reduce.
“Where this is really valuable is when you multiply it by the number of ferries operating around the world,” he said. “There’s a huge potential here, and this is how we can start to reduce, bit by bit, the carbon intensity of our ports.”
Backers also hope that hydrogen fuel cells could eventually be used to power container ships.
The International Maritime Organization, which regulates commercial shipping, wants to halve greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century.
As fossil fuel emissions continue to warm the Earth’s atmosphere, the Biden administration Hydrogen as an energy source It is used in cars, manufacturing and power generation, and is providing $8 billion in funding to entice domestic industry, engineers and planners to come up with ways to produce and distribute clean hydrogen.
Environmental groups say hydrogen poses its own pollution and climate risks.
Right now, most of the hydrogen produced around the world each year comes from natural gas, primarily for refineries and fertilizer production. This process isn’t helping the planet, it’s warming it. In fact, a new study from researchers at Cornell and Stanford universities found that most hydrogen production still releases carbon dioxide, meaning hydrogen-fueled transportation still isn’t clean energy.
But proponents of hydrogen-powered transportation argue that in the long term, hydrogen production is destined to become more environmentally safe. They foresee growing availability of electricity from wind and solar energy, which can separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water. As this renewable energy becomes more widely available, hydrogen production should become a cleaner and cheaper process.
The Sea Change project was funded and managed by investment firm SWITCH Maritime. The ship was built by Bay Ship and Yacht of Alameda, California, and All-American Marine of Bellingham, Washington.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report from Providence, Rhode Island.
