EH Group has designed and manufactured a hydrogen fuel cell system, specifically for maritime applications and this new system recently received Approval in Principle from the DNV.

In order to provide this approval, the DNV assessed the 250kW solution, ensuring that the EH Group’s fuel cell design was suitable for its intended purpose. These assessments checked that the system met all the applicable maritime rules, regulations, codes and standards. Since being approved, the EH TRACE-M250 module is now awaiting ‘Type Approval’ which will fully certify the product. Once certified and able to go into operations, it is anticipated that the solution will be capable of enabling hydrogen-powered maritime and aviation.

Before receiving approval from the DNV, the Swiss-based company ran tests on their fuel cell technology to evaluate its capabilities. In October of 2023, EH Group tested their technology in high temperature PEM mode (HTPEMFC) and this resulted in the technology delivering over 2.3kW/L of power at atmospheric pressure. This was the result of the experiment, due to the unique design of the stack. Furthermore, the EH Group took their fuel cell technology development further in 2023, when the company created its Innovation Lab in India. At this site, the company built on their fuel cell technologies with the use of India’s green hydrogen policy commitments.

EH Group’s Founder, Mardit Matian, said that this approval which has now been provided, ‘demonstrates EH Group’s “commitment towards standards and norms,” plus, it ‘takes an “important step” towards decarbonising the maritime sector.’

Certification Engineer and Project Manager at EH Group, Danny Knippen, commented, “This is an important step in the wider commercialisation of our 250kW fuel cell system, featuring several unique innovations which were approved by DNV.”

Knippen also mentioned ‘that the approval from DNV will enable the company to “scale up to meet the high-power requirements of the marine sector and to provide turn-key solutions.”’