TECO 2030 Partnering With AVL for Hydrogen Marine Fuel Cell

TECO 2030 ASA (TECO) announces a partnership agreement with AVL List GmbH (AVL) for the development of TECO Marine Fuel Cell, a hydrogen fuel cell system specifically designed for heavy-duty marine applications.

"I am extremely pleased to be able to work with AVL, an engineering powerhouse with more than 11,500 employees. There is simply no better partner for us as we aim to solve one of the major environmental challenges of our time: Keeping in mind that marine transport is expected to triple from 2015 to 2050, we still need to reduce carbon and other emissions from the shipping industry," said Tore Enger, Chief Executive Officer of TECO 2030 ASA.

Over the past year, TECO 2030 and AVL has already worked together to develop the TECO Future Funnel, a next-generation scrubber, which significantly reduces emissions from combustion engines. The TECO Future Funnel is made to be upgraded to handle more types of emissions, and the ultimate goal is zero impact emission. A letter of intent for two scrubbers has been signed for planned delivery in the fourth quarter 2020, and production capacity for a significant number of scrubbers has been established.

The partners are now embarking on their next project, the TECO Marine Fuel Cell. The aim is to market the first proton-exchange membrane fuel cell system specifically designed for heavy duty marine use, offering emission free propulsion by using hydrogen as fuel. The project development timeline is three years, and a letter of intent has already been signed for one of the most ambitious hydrogen projects in Europe. 

"This is a perfect one-two punch. In the short term we need to clean up the emissions from the current fleet. In the longer term, hydrogen is the obvious answer. After having proven their usefulness in larger land vehicles, fuel cells will in the coming years play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the marine industries,” Enger concludes.