Corvus Energy wins EU funding to integrate ammonia cracker tech with marine hydrogen FCS

Corvus Energy, a supplier of energy storage solutions for the maritime industry, has secured funding for the integration of ammonia cracker technology with its hydrogen fuel cell system (FCS), the so-called Pelican Fuel Cell system.

The project funding is part of the Horizon Europe Framework Program, Horizon-CL5-2023-D5-01.

Corvus Energy, together with several partners, will work on the project titled APOLO which aims to solve the challenges of power conversion from ammonia and develop an efficient and flexible ammonia cracking technology for the maritime sector.

As explained, the technologies developed in APOLO will be capable of targeting the first 30,000 ships in the market. Initially, the focus will be on vessels with 1 to 10 MW propulsion, with a significant number of them being around 3 MW in the next decade, as these are the first vessels relevant for ammonia-powered solutions.

The four-year program, which has already started on January 1, 2024, will demonstrate power conversion from commercially available fuel cell systems using hydrogen from ammonia cracking with a power output of 125 kW. The program will also test an ammonia cracker coupled with a novel ammonia engine running on an ammonia/hydrogen blend to compare the different technologies.

Through the program, Corvus Energy will work with H2Site and the other partners on the development, integration, testing, and demonstration of the ammonia cracker and their Corvus Pelican PEM Fuel Cell. In addition, Corvus Energy will lead a work package developing a business case for these systems used onboard ships.

Partners in the project in addition to Corvus Energy and H2Site include Tecnalia, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 1 CUBE, Chalmers Tekniska Hogskola, Nuvera, Astander, Fertiberia and LEC GMBH. Tecnalia will be the coordinator of the project.

“We are very grateful for the opportunity to collaborate on this exciting development. In decarbonizing the maritime sector, ammonia will be an essential part of the energy mix for ships sailing the longest routes and that also emits the most,” said Svenn Kjetil Haveland, VP Development Projects.

“There are no commercially viable ammonia solutions available for the ship-owners as of today. Developing advanced methods for cracking ammonia and demonstrating scalability and overall system efficiency is an important step forward.”

To remind, Corvus Energy launched its Pelican Fuel Cell system at the Nor-Shipping exhibition in Norway in 2023.