Standards Development

Scope

This document deals with safety of fuel cell power systems for propulsion and auxiliary power units for ships.

This document applies to Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) systems for ships.

The following fuel and oxidant are considered within the scope of this document:

- hydrogen;

- air;

This document refers to the existing IEC standards for fuel cell power systems, maritime rules and guidelines for ships, as well as the existing standard for hazardous area classification. (see "RELEVANT DOCUMENTS TO BE CONSIDERED”)

Purpose

The shipping industry is one of the largest sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as accounting for more than 2% of those in the world according to Fourth Greenhouse Gas Study 2020 published by International Maritime organization (IMO). In 2023, IMO have adopted the revised GHG reduction strategy to reach net zero GHG emissions from international shipping by or around, i.e. close to 2050 with indicative checkpoints to reduce the total annual GHG emissions by at least 20%, striving for 30% and 70%, striving for 80% by 2030 and 2040 respectively, compared to 2008.

Fuel cells are considered as one of the promising solutions to reduce GHG emissions as well as air pollutants from ships. The number of projects which install fuel cell power systems to ships has been increasing and several fuel cell system products intended to be installed in ships are in the market.

The relevant industrial organizations such as IMO and classification societies have developed their rules and guidelines related to ships using fuel cell power systems. However, these rules and guidelines don't cover the details of fuel cell power systems and refer to the existing IEC62282-2-100 (Fuel cell modules - Safety) and IEC 62282-3-100 (Stationary fuel cell power systems - Safety) which don't consider the unique enviromental and operational conditions as well as hazadous risks and safety requirements in case of ships. Especially, IEC62282-3-100 clearly says that it doesn't cover propulsion fuel cell power systems. In addition, the terminologies relating to fuel cells in the above IEC standards are not fully identical to those in the maritime rules and guidelines.

The purpose of the development of this document is to clarify the safety requirements including type test methods for fuel cell power systems for ships so that ship design and approval processes can be carried out in a more efficient way, then consequently the market will grow and GHG emissions will be reduced to achieve the targets.

Since the configurations of fuel cell power systems quite vary by types of fuel and fuel cell, this document focuses on only PEMFC with hydrogen as a fuel which is the most common types of fuel and fuel cell in the market at this moment. The standards for other types of fuel and fuel cell should be considered separately.