The Energy Observer Concept has been awarded the European Union’s Innovation Fund for its liquid hydrogen-powered container cargo ship project called Energy Observer 2 (EO2).
Selected from among 85 projects in the European Union Innovation Fund’s largest call for projects, EO2 has been awarded €40m in financial support to encourage the development of clean technologies in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize.
Saint-Malo based Energy Observer, via its subsidiary EOConcept, a sustainable maritime solutions expert, has launched the Energy Observer 2 project in 2022 with the ambition of designing the world’s lowest-carbon cargo ship.
The current design of the EO2 is a 160-meter container ship, capable of carrying up to 1,100 TEU containers on a 14 days, 1,600 nautical miles route.
It will be equipped with electric propulsion powered by 4.8 MW of fuel cells developed by EODev and its industrial partner Toyota.
The vessel is scheduled for commercial operation from 2029 on Europe’s Atlantic and Channel coasts.
Energy Observer claims that the EO2 could reduce CO₂ emissions by 112,250 tonnes over ten years, equivalent to the annual absorption of 190,000 mature trees.
“Today, with EO2, we want to take a major step forward by adopting liquid hydrogen, an energy vector that presents challenges but also offers real advantages in terms of environmental performance. In the marine sector, there is no single path: each solution, whether biofuel, methanol or ammonia, has its advantages and disadvantages,” said Victorien Erussard, founder of Energy Observer.
