French Hydrogen-Electric Fishing Training Vessel Inaugurated

The Maritime and Aquaculture Professional School of Bastia, France, (LPMA) inaugurated France's first hydrogen-electric powered fishing training vessel on November 15.

The LPMA of Bastia was awarded a €4 million budget for the construction of the zero-emission vessel through the France 2030 Recovery Plan.

Naval architecture firm MAURIC designed the vessel. MAURIC, already the designer of numerous Mediterranean fishing vessels, gathered a consortium that included Alternative Energies, CN GATTO Shipyard and EODev, supplier of hydrogen fuel cell-based REXH2 Range Extenders, to respond to the LPMA's 2021 tender.

The consortium proposed a composite vessel under 20m equipped with two 70kW REXH2 Range Extenders. The design of a hydrogen power-propulsion system vessel required the use of the alternative design methodology incorporating multiple risk analyses (HAZID) to define the hydrogen system architecture, its integration into the vessel and consequently, particularly for a vessel under 20m, the general vessel architecture.

MAURIC, as both vessel designer and technical coordinator of the consortium, coordinated all alternative design work, well beyond its traditional naval architect role. Additionally, the consortium engaged Mediterranean DIRM and Bureau Veritas for the project.

MAURIC's hydrodynamic optimizations of the vessel's hull plan, performed through CFD calculations on its 192-core computer, enabled the development of an extremely efficient hull plan. MAURIC also worked on optimizing the composite structure, significantly reducing the vessel's weight.

This resulted in a vessel that will achieve a maximum speed of 13 knots instead of the required 12 knots and an 11-hour autonomy at 10 knots, nearly 10% better than the LPMA's required performance.

Alba has been specifically designed to include fishing training capabilities such as longline and seine techniques. She can accommodate up to 12 students and two instructors (crew). With an overall length of 19.95m, the maximum length allowed by the LPMA specifications, and a beam of 5.60m, Alba features a large deck area whose layout was defined in close consultation with the LPMA teaching staff.

The vessel is fitted with removable winches and tackles for longline or seine fishing, with configuration changes possible within a few hours. Space is reserved aft for a boat or fishing winch. Two hydraulic cranes complete the deck equipment.

The design ensures all areas of the vessel are accessible to multiple persons simultaneously, enabling fluid teaching, particularly in the wheelhouse for navigation and maneuvering instruction. Students and teachers can stand upright in the fuel cell room, uncommon in vessels of these dimensions.

The vessel design specifically addresses safety fire prevention and fighting and ATEX zoning.

The vessel features a fully redundant power-propulsion architecture with two propulsion lines, two 200kW electric propulsion motors, two independent 178kWh battery packs and two independent REXH2s powered by nine (9) bottles of hydrogen compressed at 350 bars, totalling over 75kg of hydrogen.

The vessel's outfitting was completed in spring 2024, culminating in her launch in July 2024 at the CN GATTO shipyard in Martigues, France. Dockside and sea trials then began under MAURIC's coordination for performance validation and regulatory compliance of the vessel and its equipment.

After several sea trials to validate all vessel operating modes (100% electric vs electro-hydrogen, navigation, maneuvering and fishing operations), Alba reached her home port of Bastia, in Corsica on November 7, 2024.

"This project represents a crucial milestone for MAURIC and our partners, but also for the entire French hydrogen sector, as Alba is not merely 'H2-ready'. She is indeed the first French professional vessel operating exclusively on hydrogen and batteries. With this project, we demonstrate that hydrogen can be a viable technical solution for certain vessel profiles, that the technology is ready, and that France possesses the expertise to design and build professional H2 vessels," said Fabrice Ghozlan, Sales and Business Development Director at MAURIC.