UK Partners Join Forces to Advance Green Hydrogen Production and Distribution

UK-based marine energy company Marine Power Systems (MPS) has joined forces with Marine2o to develop integrated solutions to support the production of green hydrogen from offshore renewable energy sources, using marine vessels to transport this energy vector to market.

This first collaboration will support the developing pathway in the UK and other markets to deploy MPS’ innovative offshore wind and wave energy capture devices – which can be configured either as a combined solution or independent power plants – to produce green hydrogen.

MPS’ floating wind and wave technology will play a crucial role in Marine2o plans to decarbonise ports and urban water ways around the UK and internationally, according to the partners.

Namely, the London-based Marine2o, part of the Gluon Group, brought together leading figures from the worlds of marine finance and engineering to provide marine refuelling solutions as part of the future hydrogen economy.

Initially focusing on urban waterways such as vessels operating along the Thames, the collaboration with MPS will enable Marine2o to further expand its operations to other areas of the maritime economy.

Martin Carruth, commercial director of MPS, said: “Floating renewables presents a unique opportunity to transform green hydrogen production and this first collaboration will help exploit that opportunity. The recent INTOG report is very welcome and provides a route to market in the UK for MPS’s devices to produce green hydrogen.

“Together with Marine2o’s knowledge and expertise in maritime logistics, we’ve created an exciting proposition to accelerate hydrocarbon-based hydrogen replacement with green hydrogen and bring it to a wide market without the need for expensive new or modified gas transmission infrastructure”.

The market for hydrogen is well established but over 98% of hydrogen is derived from fossil fuels. Also, a mature marine transport infrastructure has been established close to energy intensive demand centres.

Therefore, coupling cheap, green hydrogen with marine distribution to end users has the added benefit of quickly delivering this transformative energy source to clients without the need of installing intrusive, expensive transmission systems or upgrading the existing gas network where it is unsuitable for hydrogen.

Tim Munn, managing director at Marine2o, said: “Marine2o has always had the passion to use the maritime sector to distribute green hydrogen and drive energy system decarbonization. Producing green hydrogen requires substantial amounts of renewable energy. Working alongside MPS provides us the opportunity to produce the green hydrogen at sea and transport into ports and urban water ways”.

Floating offshore energy is a vast source of untapped renewable energy globally. Whilst offshore winds in shallow waters have been harnessed by fixed bottom wind turbines, wind and wave energy in deep water has been largely untapped and offers better energy resources.

Floating offshore wind and wave is an excellent energy source for green hydrogen production, especially in remote areas or islands that use expensive, polluting hydrocarbon fuels for power generation, according to MPS.

The combination of floating turbines and wave energy converters, green hydrogen production, storage and offloading provision will support the production of very low-cost green hydrogen, MPS claims.