World's first fuel cell ship visits Copenhagen

Already, liquefied natural gas is cheaper than diesel—if you can find it. Engineer and project developer Kjell Sandaker of Eidesvik notes there are as many as 15 such fueling stations along the Norwegian coast and the bright orange Viking Lady gases up once a week as its onboard turbines also directly burn the gas to supply electricity to the engines, though they can also burn diesel if necessary. The ship's 220 cubic meter tank can hold roughly 90 metric tons of liquefied natural gas at a time.

"If the ships are ordered, we believe filling stations will also come," DNV's Svensen says. Already, at least one cruise ship that might employ the technology is under construction. "In the North Sea, when drilling for oil they find gas," Eidesvik's Sandaker says. "By going on gas, we increase fuel efficiency" and decrease emissions.

But the $EU 12 million fuel cell from MTU On Site Energy is just in the testing phase, which will continue until mid-2010, and is not responsible for driving any of the four electric engines or propellers—after nearly a decade of development work. "It's been two weeks working," Sandaker says. "It's been through its first storm in the North Sea."

The investment was made, in part, to get an understanding of fuel cell technology and how it might be applied to shipping, according to DNV's Viking Lady project head Tomas Heber Tronstad. Initial estimates are that such fuel cells would cut CO2 emissions from an individual ship by 50 percent. But the investment was also made because Norway has a tax on nitrogen oxide emissions that paid an immediate return for installing gas rather than diesel engines, says Eidesvik CEO Jan Fredrik Meling. Compared to a traditional ship, even without using the fuel cell, the Viking Lady reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent, CO2 emissions by 20 percent and eliminates sulfur dioxide and soot emissions.

"The technology has existed for years," Meling adds. "Demand must be created." And old ships can be retrofitted with catalytic converters, like those in cars, to bring down emissions, according to Wartsila's Palomaki.

Ultimately, whether the Viking Lady remains unique in the annals of shipping will depend on the political decisions that come out of the Copenhagen climate conference and in national capitals. "It will take 20 to 30 years for this technology without government support," says DNV's Tronstad. "If they want to act on climate soon, this is a technology that is available today."