Advanced Technologies and Recent Applications on Fuel Cell Powered Marine Transport

Abstract

Lately, particularly in the last decade, the whole world has been doing its best to minimize the effects of global warming and CO[[inf]]2[[/inf]] emissions. Although the increasing population and power plants’ energy demand for fossil fuels slow down this process, technological progress counteracts the growing demand for a clean future for the world. Maritime transportation is also a large industry that needs to be efficient and environmentally friendly. Different alternative propulsion systems are designed for large marine vehicles that require significant power to navigate in an environmentally friendly, efficient, and low-cost manner. This section is to expand on the following topics: the areas of fuel cells in maritime transportation, their importance, advantages, and barriers, working systems of new technologies, the efficiency of hybrid systems, recent applications and new projects, life cycle assessments, economic/regulation aspects and how hydrogen and fuel cells may affect this industry in the near future in the context of new studies. Moreover, the key points of using hydrogen via fuel cells are analyzed. Its main advantage is being an efficient, resource-free, and environmentally friendly fuel in maritime transportation. © 2025 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.