SEA-KIT's proposed project - Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition – Strand 2 is the design, build and testing of a new and novel hydrogen fuel cell engineered by Bramble Energy and modification of an existing Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) to enable installation of the fuel cell as a replacement to the existing diesel engine and demonstrate a route to fulfilling the UK's Clean Maritime Plan Strategy commitment of reducing emissions of GHGs from shipping by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008. SEA-KIT (SK) supply long endurance highly capable USV's to the offshore industry for survey and construction support work. The vessel has a dual diesel-electric hybrid drive. Propulsion comes from electric motors powered from battery banks that are charged by in-situ diesel generators.

The project will use Bramble Energy's (BE) printed circuit board fuel cell (PCBFC), the PCBFC will be marinized and designed around SK's USV. Utilising PCBs, rather than metallic or graphite end plates, BE's PCBFC technology is more suited to rugged, marinized environments. The PCBFC system will be designed in an enclosure within the USV to prevent sea water ingress and resulting corrosion from sea water.

The project provides a route to replace one of the diesel generators with a hydrogen fuel cell and demonstrate an offshore operation with zero carbon emissions. The retention of one of the diesel generators, which will not be used during the demonstration, significantly de-risks the programme.

The benefit of using this existing vehicle as a basis for a demonstrator is that much of the existing propulsion hardware can be used, with little to no modification. This will allow the project team to focus on the innovative power system and not the already proven technology required for the fuel cell operation.
Part of the exploitation plan soon after this project is to install the fuel cell into the USV and demonstrate zero emissions USV operations in a marine, saltwater environment to demonstrate the fuel cell capabilities. Part of Bramble Energy’s exploitation plan is to proceed with regulatory certification for selling the FC as a standard product into maritime industry.