ExpectedOutcome:The total volume of goods transported via inland waterways through the 27 European Union countries was 523 million tonnes in 2019 (source: EUROSTAT); this was transported by about 12,700 cargo vessels and 2,300 tugs and push boats using cost-effective and safe logistics solutions via TEN-T transport corridors. The new targets of the Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package open new perspectives for accelerated development of inland water transportation using renewable hydrogen. Eliminating emissions from these vessels, while creating a strong commercial proposition, will boost the European waterborne transport sector and have a major positive impact on air pollution and GHG emissions. Given that inland vessels last for over 40 years, and the current (low) rate of new building, both new building and retrofitting the existing fleet are key to reaching the emission reduction targets and establishing a rapid market uptake.

The spectrum of hydrogen alternatives, the boundary conditions for successful integration as well as codes and standards are new and not widely available yet. Obligatory periodic inspection and maintenance, upgrades or retrofits are executed... ver más

ExpectedOutcome:The total volume of goods transported via inland waterways through the 27 European Union countries was 523 million tonnes in 2019 (source: EUROSTAT); this was transported by about 12,700 cargo vessels and 2,300 tugs and push boats using cost-effective and safe logistics solutions via TEN-T transport corridors. The new targets of the Green Deal and the Fit for 55 package open new perspectives for accelerated development of inland water transportation using renewable hydrogen. Eliminating emissions from these vessels, while creating a strong commercial proposition, will boost the European waterborne transport sector and have a major positive impact on air pollution and GHG emissions. Given that inland vessels last for over 40 years, and the current (low) rate of new building, both new building and retrofitting the existing fleet are key to reaching the emission reduction targets and establishing a rapid market uptake.

The spectrum of hydrogen alternatives, the boundary conditions for successful integration as well as codes and standards are new and not widely available yet. Obligatory periodic inspection and maintenance, upgrades or retrofits are executed by many European yards. Their main expertise and experience, however, is with traditional fossil fuel and ICE technologies. The same holds for crew, bunkering and refuelling personnel, and ship owners. All should be upskilled to either design, integrate or work with hydrogen systems.

Several projects have demonstrated the feasibility of zero-emissions hydrogen propelled inland shipping. However, large scale uptake asks for a holistic approach covering the whole value chain. This includes the need for investing in public development, standardisation and integration of hydrogen propulsion and bunkering systems, a clear regulatory framework for technical execution, on-board integration, crew and bunkering personnel education and qualification, as well as a robust regulatory framework for the introduction of hydrogen as a fuel in EU waters. This will increase the uptake of hydrogen fuel cell technology and zero emission inland navigation and bring the application within reach of the sector and end-users. Ultimately, the sector should be supplied by a well distributed, resilient and consolidated market on components for retrofitting, new building and spare parts, with a fuel infrastructure that is integrated in the multimodal transport chain, supporting local industries.

This flagship[1] topic aims to address all of the aspects above mentioned via the deployment of a fleet of inland waterway vessels.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

Retrofitting existing diesel propelled vessels with fuel cells and electric propulsion systems will have become the state-of-the-art. The integration of hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen storage and distribution (infrastructure, bunkering, piping, and on board and onshore) solutions, based on a Europe-wide, harmonised regulatory framework, has become daily business;Track record of technical, financial and environmental performance resulting from the deployment and operation of a fleet of inland waterway vessels;At least 10% of all vessels in operation (about 1,500) will be hydrogen fuel cell propelled, covering the whole territory of the EU inland waters, creating a market for about 500[2] tonnes hydrogen per day;Hydrogen propelled vessels will be allowed to sail all inland waters in the EU using standardised regulations, without the need for lengthy approval processes;The sector uses common systematic design and engineering methods to achieve integrated ship and power train refits and new build solutions, such that further standardisation of the power train components (modules) is accelerated, allowing the rapid deployment of these technologies across the fleet. Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA:

Product design reaching type approval [number]: 15 in 2024 and 40 in 2030;PEMFC system CAPEX [€/kW]: 1,500 in 2024 and 1,000 in 2030;Maritime FCS lifetime [h]: 40,000 in 2024 and 80,000 in 2030.
Scope:First demonstrators funded by previous FCH-JU projects, as well as other projects in recent years, have primarily focused on the demonstration of technical feasibility of fuel cells on board inland vessels. A large-scale demonstration is now required to further the uptake of fuel cells and hydrogen in this sector. This flagship project should include:

at least 5 inland vessels (retrofitting and/or new build), with FC power above 500kW and preferably at 1 MW scale;at least 2 vessel types;2 vessels should operate for at least 2 years, and the others for at least 1 year;vessels that should be able to bunker hydrogen in at least 2 different ports;creating a corridor, connecting to hydrogen infrastructure, aligned with the TEN-T[3] network;preferably one vessel is a (self-propelled) hydrogen bunker barge, which can bunker vessels alongside while in transit, at anchorage, or at the pier;An overall plan for deployment (with different stages) that goes beyond the timeline of this project should be foreseen. The needs of support for later stages should be justified in view of closing the funding gap in a dynamic environment where hydrogen shipping becomes increasingly competitive with incumbent technologies.A detailed data monitoring strategy (with minimum parameters to be monitored) that would allow evaluate the overall financial, environmental and technical performance of each of the vessel to be deployed in the project in sufficient detail. Costs related to the monitoring equipment are eligible. It is highly recommended that the project collaborates with other projects (e.g. RH2INE[4], GREENPORTS,[5] MAGPIE[6] and PIONEERS[7]) on bunkering and refuelling infrastructure to align interfaces and create a robust hydrogen bunkering infrastructure along the TEN-T.

The proposed hydrogen fuel cell electric powertrain and storage should be a modular and easy-to-scale solution, in order to reduce conversion time as well as design and development cost for future vessels. On the technology side, the project should result in:

Fuel cell systems, hydrogen storage and hydrogen distribution components meeting the unique requirements of inland waterway navigation, including but not limited to corrosion, performance, lifetime, and safety;Fuel cell systems, hydrogen storage and hydrogen distribution components with type approval, to increase market acceptance and ensure safety under all conditions;The development of resilient value chains in order to provide high quality products and solutions suitable for long-term commercial operations;Solutions which preferably build upon the lessons learned in StasHH[8] and consider circularity by design for equipment and business models;Secure approvals/exemptions from regulating bodies resulting in general permission for hydrogen powered inland vessels to navigate European waterways. The project should focus on converting those ship types that have the highest impact on emissions. Nevertheless, it is expected that the developed solutions are also applicable to other vessel types and should be adaptable to different operations and associated power and energy consumption profiles. System dimensioning and integration should therefore be based on representative measurement data, allowing for optimal operations and efficient fuel consumption. A systematic retrofit design approach should result in general guidelines or advice for retrofitting inland vessels.

In order to successfully integrate modular hydrogen-based solutions on a large scale and embed them in the EU inland navigation industry, the project should at least perform the following dissemination and communication activities:

During the project, results should be disseminated to the inland navigation sector, including training, integration & operation manuals and procedures, to enable knowledge transfer resulting in capacity building and general acceptance of maritime hydrogen fuel cell technology which would initiate other hydrogen vessel projects;Show the impact achieved via a lifecycle assessment (vessel, technology and operation) comparing the conventional (original) and new (retrofitted) situations;Include shipowners, shipyards, ship designers, maritime system integrators, ship operators, port authorities and classification authorities and all key staff within these organisations that would be involved in operating these technologies on board and on shore;Contribute to setting the standard when it comes to rules and regulations for type-approval and technical documentation;Establish a link with Zero Emission Waterborne Transport co-programmed partnership (ZEWT) to ensure that technical knowledge (best practices) can be exported to the larger and more complex (e.g. sea going) vessels. The HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-02-11 and HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-03-05 topics are highly complementary and synergies between the two should be sought by applicants.

The refuelling infrastructure and its associated costs are not in the scope of this topic. Applicants are therefore strongly encouraged to seek support from alternative sources of funding and/or financing and provide such additional plan to minimise the risk of the implementation of vehicles and associated infrastructure and maximise its impact.

Applicants are therefore encouraged to submit complementary proposals to Clean Hydrogen JU (for the deployment of the vessels) and to CEF-T (for the deployment of the refuelling infrastructure)[9].

Furthermore applicants may consider additional synergies with other Programmes (e.g. European Structural and Investment Funds, Recovery and Resilience Facility, Just Transition Fund, Connecting Europe Facility, Innovation Fund, Modernisation Fund, LIFE, etc.) and/or clustering with other projects within Horizon Europe or funded under other EU, national or regional programmes, or having loans through the EIB or other promotional or commercial banks; such synergies should be reflected in a financing structure and strategy describing the business model, including envisaged sources of co-funding/co-financing and in line with state-aid rules.

This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen and fuel cell systems and components.

It is expected that Guarantees of origin (GOs) will be used to prove the renewable character of the hydrogen that is used. In this respect consortium may seek out the purchase and subsequent cancellation of GOs from the relevant Member State issuing body and if that is not yet available the consortium may proceed with the purchase and cancellation of non-governmental certificates (e.g CertifHy[10]).

Proposals should provide a preliminary draft on ‘hydrogen safety planning and management’ at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation.

Activities developing test protocols and procedures for the performance and durability assessment of electrolysers and fuel cell components proposals should foresee a collaboration mechanism with JRC (see section 2.2.4.3 "Collaboration with JRC"), in order to support EU-wide harmonisation. Test activities should adopt the already published EU harmonised testing protocols to benchmark performance and quantify progress at programme level.

Activities are expected to start at TRL 6 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project.

At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 15.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2022 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021–2022 which apply mutatis mutandis.


[1]For definition of flagship see section 5.3. of the Clean Hydrogen JU Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda 2021 – 2027

[2]assuming an average consumption of 125 tonnes a year per vessel (reference 110m vessel with 1MW FC).

[3]https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t_en

[4]https://www.rh2ine.eu/

[5]https://greencportsproject.eu/

[6]https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101036594

[7]https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101037564

[8]https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/projects-repository_en

[9]The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport (CEF-T) work programme 2021-2023 has a 3-year rolling call running for the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Facility, with deadlines every 6 months, .

[10]https://www.certifhy.eu/

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