The world’s leading trade fair for the maritime industry, the SMM, took place this year as a purely digital conference. Besides discussions on the current Corona crisis, the overriding topics of digitalisation and environmental protection dominated the panels, sessions and interviews.

More than 160 experts spoke about the technological and ecological challenges facing the industry, and over 7,000 participants from 80 countries joined the event through digital means.

Erik Schumacher, Head of Stationary Fuel Cells at NOW GmbH, led the session “Fuel Cells in Maritime Applications” on the Green Stage. The focus was on “e4ships”, a cluster of leading German shipyards, shipping companies, fuel cell manufacturers, suppliers and classification societies funded by the German government as part of the National Innovation Programme Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology.

In the wake of increasingly stringent emission regulations for ships and due to growing environmental awareness among shipping companies and passengers, inland and maritime shipping are facing major challenges. The discussion focused on fuel cell systems in ship applications.

Discussing the current state of development of the technology were Achim Wehrmann (BMVI), Jennifer Kreissel (hySOLUTIONS), Dr. Ralf Sören Marquardt (German Shipbuilding and Ocean Industries Association – Verband für Schiffbau und Meerestechnik), Keno Leites (thyssenkrupp Marine Systems), Jonathan Tylle (Meyer Werft), Benjamin Scholz (DNV GL), Ragnar Christenson (Meyer Werft), Corinna Barthel (Schiffswerft Herrmann Barthel) and Diederick Stam (EST-Floattech).

The recording of the livestream can be found here: www.smm-hamburg.com/smm-streams/event/fuel-cells-in-maritime-applications@46946

Recordings of the complete programme content are available until the end of 2021.

Further information:

www.e4ships.de