Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 1
The UK Department for Transport awarded £375,000 to a project led by ZEM and its partners as a part of the clean maritime demonstration competition round 1. The competition was open to projects who contributed to the development of technologies addressing the immense challenges facing the UK’s maritime sector in efforts to reduce transport emissions .
Ammonia is the closest alternative to an ideal fuel amongst the zero-carbon fuels as it has one of the highest volumetric energy density and it provides a similar overall performance to liquid propane gas-powered internal combustion engines.
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In this project, we collaborated with the University of St Andrews, an internationally leading centre of solid state electrochemical research to show successful application of our new proton-conducting ceramic tubular cells to directly convert ammonia to electricity. We achieved a highly efficient direct ammonia conversion (%100) with no ammonia slippage and 250 hours of cell durability.
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The developed protonic solid oxide fuel cell has major advantages over other conventional solid oxide fuel cells such as lower operating temperatures and zero nitrogen oxides formation.
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Innovation Challenge: Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicles
Funded by Transport Scotland and managed by Scottish Enterprise, this funding allowed organisations to undertake detailed design and assess the technical and commercial feasibility of their proposed solutions to contribute to developing solutions for heavy duty vehicles. £50,000 was awarded to ZEM and The University of St. Andrews to develop the second generation of the protonic solid oxide fuel cells which offered higher performance, longer durability, and lower production cost compared to its predecessor.
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In this project, we focused on the optimisation of the catalyst type and the development of a new spraying technique to improve ammonia cracking performance of the cells. We developed a spraying technology to apply a Barium Cerium Zirconate-based catalyst on tubular supports and optimise the loading achieving a 100% ammonia cracking. Our technology could significantly impact the rapidly growing renewable energy sector (including its supply vessels) which is actively pursuing clean fuels.
SPARK
Funded by the Net Zero Technology Centre, £159,000 was awarded to this project to address the need to move away from fossil fuel- driven transport to clean fuels in the marine sector.
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For low temperature fuel cells, ammonia needs to be cracked in a separate unit resulting in an efficiency loss. To this end, we focused on an efficient high temperature solid oxide fuel cell to convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy powering electric drives. The system simultaneously crack and convert ammonia to produce electricity driving water vessels.
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In this project, we focused on the optimisation of cell components for a highly effective and durable ammonia conversion.
Optimisation of Proton Conducting Ceramic Tubular Cells for Efficient Hydrogen Production
Part of the Emerging Energy Technologies Fund (EETF) Hydrogen Innovation Scheme, £148,000 was awarded to ZEM in this project. ZEM conducted a research in collaboration with The University of St Andrews to produce low-cost hydrogen using novel and highly efficient proton-conducting ceramic tubular cells. ZEM's technology shows great potential for steam electrolysis, and in this project we developed this capability to overcome a significant barrier and create a new technological advancement.
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Our main goal at ZEM is to address effective hydrogen production by adjusting and optimising our current fuel cells for running in the reverse direction, electrolysis. Additionally, we conducted a feasibility study on electrochemically converting steam into hydrogen. ZEM is optimising the components of proton-conducting ceramic tubular cells to operate efficiently under high-temperature electrolysis conditions.
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Ultimately, ZEM aims to develop a strategy for early demonstrations at the kilowatt scale. This will pave the way for further commercialization of larger-scale devices, supporting the UK in achieving its goal of 10GW production of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030.
Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3
Empower
Growth
The UK Department for Transport awarded over £2 million to a project led by ZEM as a part of the third round of the clean maritime demonstration competition.
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The project built upon the clean maritime demonstration competition round 1, with the core activity to develop and demonstrate an operational ammonia fuel cell stack. The project demonstrated a 1kW ammonia fuel cell combined with 5kW auxiliary power unit to power auxiliary loads on a water vessel at Eyemouth Marine. In addition to ZEM Fuel Systems, the project consortium included St. Andrews University, Echandia Marine UK Limited, Eyemouth Marine limited, Seaking Electrical limited, Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, and Port of Cromarty Firth.
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This partnership implemented direct ammonia fuel cells in the maritime sector establishing pathways to early markets. We seek to exploit anticipated advantages in terms of low cost and long lifetime, allowing the development of a robust and highly competitive product.
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