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The Marine Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Association (MHFCA) has said that it will be exhibiting at this week's Hanseboot 50th International Boat Show in Hamburg from October 24th to November 1st 2009.

In a statement, the MHFCA said it will have 12 metre square booth at the leading maritime event.

"MHFCA will be networking on behalf of it's members to educate the marine industry on the advantages and benefits of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies," the association said.

The Marine Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association is a non-profit organization which was founded by international members of the marine and hydrogen business. It aims to unify the needs of the marine sector with new applications of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell technologies.

Headquartered in Leipzig, Germany, the MHFCA says there are a number of developments based on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells that are already very close to commercialization but require market conditions that will help to expedite their use.

Companies including Germanischer Lloyd, Air Products, Ballard, NedStack and others are amongst the MHFCA's members and will also be 'partly present' at the booth, the association said.

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices which convert the chemical energy of a fuel, for example hydrogen-rich gases, into direct current power.

In a speech earlier this year, Dr. Zabi Bazari, Ship Energy Services Manager for Lloyd's Register Marine Consultancy Services brought the audience up to date with developments in fuel cell technologies and the likely timeline for practical shipboard application.

He said that after a further three year period of research and development, we would see a period of adoption of fuel cell technology - primarily to gradually replace auxiliary power generation engines.

But full replacement of existing engines/fuels combinations to fuel cell would not be likely for 20-30 years yet, he advised.

In March, Classification society Bureau Veritas developed comprehensive new guidelines covering the safe application of fuel cells on ships which could have important environmental and commercial advantages for shipowners and operators.

Before the new guidelines were developed, the application of fuel cells in shipping had been limited to a few pilot projects. The main obstacle to the wider application of fuel cells in shipping had been the lack of a comprehensive framework covering the technology.

According to Bureau Veritas(BV) product manager Gijsbert de Jong “By developing these new guidelines, BV is breaking the vicious circle whereby the lack of a regulatory framework limits the possibilities for building and testing the prototype applications which are essential for determining the safety and performance criteria involved."

Meanwhile, earlier this year bunker barge operator and marine transportation company Foss Maritime announced the launch of its low emission tug, which the company claims to be 'the world’s first true hybrid'.

Unlike other tugs, the hybrid tug will rely on batteries and an active power management system to minimize engine use. When the engines are used, they will run at power levels that maximize efficiency, reversing the trend of harbor tugs to spend approximately 60 percent of their time at less efficient low power levels.

Additionally, the tug will be able to incorporate future energy storage improvements in battery technology and hydrogen fuel cells.