State of the art of high temperature fuel cells in maritime applications

The paper aims to make the state of the art on the applications of Fuel Cells (FCs) in maritime applications. It synthetically describes the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells technologies highlighting critical issues and advantages dealing with the maritime sectors. Several projects have been described in literature, the main focus are the assessments of potential for FC use, rules development, feasibility studies and concept design for testing FCs in various vessels. Low temperature FCs, in particular PEMFC fuelled by H2, are suitable for small and medium applications, high temperature FCs (HTFCs) for larger ones. The main conclusions are that no fundamental obstacles for the integration of FC-systems into commercial ships exist as well as no fundamental obstacles with respect to safety.