04.12.2007
Zero emission trips on the Alster
Keel laid for the first fuel cell powered passenger ship
In summer of 2008 Hamburg will be able to celebrate a world's first on the Alster. For the first time, a passenger ship powered by fuel cells will go into service.
The new Alster excursion ship will carry up to 100 passengers on each trip completely free of emissions. Under the lead management of the Hamburg State Ministry for Urban Development and the Environment nine partners have come together, each of them bringing specialist know-how to the EU-supported project.
On the occasion of the laying-down of the ship today, Axel Gedaschko, Senator for Urban Development and the Environment, underlined the importance of the project for the Hanseatic city: "This project will show that innovative ways to protect the environment and save resources are both feasible and attractive. Nine project partners are contributing their specialist know-how in order to make a point: Hamburg is the trail-blazer in hydrogen and fuel cell technology. What is being proved daily by the fuel cell buses of the Hamburg Hochbahn AG on our streets will now be an even more prominent feature of our citys face."
The Alster excursion ship is being built at the SSB shipyard in Oortkaten in Hamburg. It will be operated from summer 2008 by ATG Alster-Touristik GmbH, which is responsible in the project for the design of the ships hull. Jens Wrage, Managing Director of ATG, is convinced that the people of Hamburg will welcome it as enthusiastically as the tourists: "It will be a very special experience to travel across our Alster lake and through the side-canals on a modern ship which is completely emission-free. And the ATG has at last got a real Alster excursion steamer again, although now the steam is just that pure water vapour."
Germanischer Lloyd (GL) is responsible for safety aspects and quality control in the project. Dr. Gerd Würsig, fuel cell expert at Germanischer Lloyd: "The fuel cell technology is also quite unproblematic when used on board a passenger ship. The ship is being built in compliance with GL standards. The passenger will hardly notice any difference compared with a conventional ship except that he will be astonished to find how quiet it is."
The centrepiece of the Zemship, the innovative fuel cell hybrid drive, is the responsibility of Proton Motor Fuel Cell GmbH. Project Manager Anno Mertens is looking forward to the project: "We are building a ship here which will not only produce zero emissions, but will also run almost twice as efficiently as conventional diesel-powered ships. For us, the project presents a fantastic opportunity to break ground in a new, very promising market and to create new jobs into the bargain."
Günter Elste, Chairman of the Board of Management of Hamburger Hochbahn AG (HOCHBAHN), on whose property the hydrogen fuelling station erected by Linde AG will stand, and who can now look back on several years of experience with fuel cell buses, sees enormous opportunities in the fuel cell technology: "Our experience has shown the suitability of fuel cells for operation day in, day out in the city bus services. HOCHBAHN now intends to provide the proof in its subsidiary ATG that Zemships are just as reliable. This is the only way to underpin a sufficient expansion in demand, which is indispensable for making new technologies like this competitive."
