HydroMAR-E is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 2 (CMDC2) which was launched in May 2022, funded by the Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
As part of the CMDC2, the Department allocated over £14m to 31 projects supported by 121 organisations from across the UK to deliver feasibility studies and collaborative R&D projects in clean maritime solutions.
The CMDC2 is part of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emission’s (UK SHORE) flagship multi-year CMDC programme.
In March 2022, the Department announced the biggest government investment ever in our UK commercial maritime sector, allocating £206m to UK SHORE, a new division within the Department for Transport focused on decarbonising the maritime sector.
UK SHORE is delivering a suite of interventions throughout 2022-2025 aimed at accelerating the design, manufacture and operation of UK-made clean maritime technologies and unlocking an industry-led transition to Net Zero.
HydroMAR-E will develop a mono-fuel Hydrogen version of the Recuperated Split Cycle Engine.
This highly innovative thermal engine can be used in a range of heavy duty applications for land and sea. It offers very high efficiency (competitive with a PEM fuel cell), very low emissions (SULEV with aftertreatment), and ease of transition (existing ICE manufacture and installation requirements; moderate capital cost increase).
Uniquely, and unlike a standard ICE, the RSCE has demonstrated ability to use Diesel, Methane and Hydrogen in the same core engine (and has potential for the same with Ammonia or Methanol) with the same high efficiency and low emissions, enabling a rapid transition as future fuels become more widely available.
HydroMAR-E will use a laboratory single cylinder engine, which has already demonstrated starting and running, to develop this spark-guided system to TRL4, then a multi-cylinder prototype to demonstrate TRL5 in readiness for future application demonstration in marine (and other) environments. Supporting work will develop an improved recuperator system, and review marinization, installation, vessel systems and regulatory aspects.
The project brings together the technology developer Dolphin N2 (Part of the Iveco Group, a global supplier of marine engines in the 100-600kW range), Brighton University (the UK APC’s Thermal Propulsion Efficiency spoke), leading marine architects BMT, and recuperator technology developer Hiflux.
