The barge will convert seawater into hydrogen in the port of Santander

He Port of Santander will accommodate a barge capable of transform seawater into hydrogen and green ammonia“the fuel of the future”, according to a consortium of maritime companies from Cantabria, Galicia and Asturias who are developing a pilot project in which they intend to install this technology on floating platforms that work on photovoltaic and solar energy.

Initiative H2 People’s Bay Thus begins the first of its three phases, which will last three years with a budget of 7.7 million euros, subsidized by European funds as a strategic project of economic recovery and transformation.

This initial phase was presented this Tuesday at a press conference in the port of Santander, the space that will house the pilot technology at the Raos docks: a solar-powered barge that will take water from the sea, filter it and synthesize it into hydrogen and green ammonia.

President of the Sea Of Innovation Cantabria Cluster Association (sic), Louis San Segundo; industrial advisor and vice president of the port, Javier Marcanoand the President of the Port Authority, Franje Martinthey explained the details of the approved project to journalists.

Hydrogen, as San Segundo explains, is the fuel that best adapts to decarbonisation goals in the maritime sector, while ammonia is “the ideal method for its storage, transport and distribution”. For this reason, the end market for this pilot project would be the supply of marine vessels in areas far from the coast.

It will also serve as a study to verify the development of a plant of these characteristics and to assess the possible risks to the environment due to ammonia leakage, as well as to verify whether it supports the ecological conditions of the sea.

The assembly of that barge will begin when the partners of the consortium of eleven maritime clusters, coordinated by Sicc, agree on the dates.

The second phase of the project would take approximately another three years and would seek to develop a prototype with ammonia equipment integrated into an already operational offshore wind turbine.

The project will end in the third phase with integration into the working wind farm.