Thames Clippers currently provides public transport on the river Thames with catamarans and will expand its services to include freight using a similar catamaran design. As these catamarans operate at high-speed the power installead is large and currently provided via diesel engines. Thames Clippers face increasing regulations and commercial pressure to provide a zero emission solution.

Zero emission propulsion systems with sufficient autonomy at high speeds for daily operation on the river infers that a substantial quantity of a low energy density fuel by volume is required. Fitting this fuel volume inside the catamaran together with other operational demands, such as passenger seat capacity or freight volumes, is a complex problem. Although fuel cell electric drive systems for marine propulsion are now becoming mature technology, the fuel choice remains an open question. Consequently, Thames Clippers proposes a feasibility study to integrate such a propulsion system into their catamaran platform for new catamarans and retrofitting into some of their existing fleet.

The key objective is to gain a better understanding of economic and technical driving factors of three zero carbon fuel candidates within the design constraints of the current catamaran platform, i.e., speed, passenger and freight capacities, limited main dimensions, air-draught, etc. The likely fuel choices are compressed hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen and methanol. The result of the study will allow Thames Clippers to make an informed future choice for their ideal propulsion package for their fleet extension and retrofit options for passenger and freight services with the most commercially beneficial fuel.

Thames Clippers is supported by Mayfair Marine as a hydrogen marine consultant, Class Society DNV for regulatory support and catamaran designers One2three Naval Architects. A feasibility study is planned to investigate economic, technical, regulatory and operational aspects of the catamaran platform whilst considering the fuel choices. Efficiency opportunities for each fuel choice will be evaluated, for instance using the cryogenic latent heat of liquid hydrogen to power the air-conditioning system, amongst others.

Each fuel path (i.e., emissions and costs from source to propelled wake) will be evaluated to determine the commercial impact. An information exchange with another CMDC application, project HOST where Thames Clippers is also a partner, will improve the accuracy of establishing the fuel path costs within the Thames Gateway. Expecting that alternative fuels are more expensive compared to conventional fuels, the economic understanding, i.e., commercial impact, is equally important as the technical feasibility.