Hydrogen promises to be a future energy source that is clean, efficient, and renewable. Washington businesses have been hard at work on many fronts to tap its potential. But unknown to many, All American Marine in Bellingham has launched the first commercial ferry powered entirely with hydrogen fuel.
While we wish that Washington’s pristine waters would be the homeport for this new vessel, it is headed to California, where the 75-passenger ferry will operate in the Bay Area. Same seaboard, so we can live with that since the glory for creating it goes to the state’s maritime industry, specifically All American Marine. They designed and built the ferry, which uses hydrogen cell power to drive its electric engines.
Appropriately christened the Sea Change, the ferry was built entirely with private capital from SWITCH, an impact investment platform building the first fleet of exclusively zero-carbon maritime vessels to accelerate the decarbonization and energy transition of the US maritime sector. The firm has been working in close collaboration with the Coast Guard to ensure that the ferry meets all the requirements for modern ferry operations and compress the certification timeframe. The goal is to quickly demonstrate the effectiveness of the vessel and build others to reduce ferry system carbon emissions throughout the world.
All American Marine was the natural choice for the new vessel, given their deep experience in building unique, high-quality vessels. Their recently expanded state-of-the-art shipyard in Bellingham has greatly added capacity to build larger, more complex vessels. The Sea Change was a perfect opportunity since it not only put the shipyard through its paces, but demonstrated the company’s engineering and manufacturing prowess.
“Hydrogen-fuel cell technology will prove to be a robust alternative to conventional powertrain technologies,” said Ron Wille, AAM President & COO. “AAM is continuing our tradition of building vessels on the leading edge of technology using advanced propulsion methods, which is why we are so proud to have completed construction on such a revolutionary vessel.”
If you are wondering what’s under the hood, the Sea Change is equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell package from Zero Emissions Industries. It uses 360 kilowatts of Cummins fuel cells and Hexagon hydrogen storage tanks with a capacity of 246 kilograms. This system is integrated with 100 kWh of a lithium-ion battery provided by XALT and a 2x 300 kW electric propulsion system provided by BAE Systems.