MAHLE develops technologies for clean shipping

Stuttgart, September 5, 2022

• At the SMM trade fair in Hamburg, MAHLE is showing technologies for climate-neutral electric ships.
• Components for the fuel cell peripherals make zero-emissions vessels possible, with the use of hydrogen.
• MAHLE’s decades of experience in fuel cell technology allows for its rapid implementation in marine applications.

Motorized passenger and freight ships began operating 200 years ago. Now, new technologies are paving the way for a climate-neutral future. At SMM in Hamburg, a specialized trade fair for the maritime industry, the MAHLE technology group displays its thermal management solutions for fuel cell peripherals used in all classes of electrically-driven vessels (September 6–9 2022, hall A3, booth 218). Using hydrogen produced in a climate-neutral manner, they are able to operate with zero emissions. Thanks to over ten years of experience as a series supplier for fuel cell technology used on the roads, MAHLE can quickly adapt these technologies for marine applications.

“Fuel cells are opening the door for a new era in shipping. Vessels driven with this technology are not only cleaner, but they also operate more quietly and with less vibration than ships driven by diesel and heavy fuel oil. This also makes them attractive for ferries and yachts,” says Markus Hübsch, Director of Industrial Thermal Management at MAHLE.

In particular, thermal management, i.e. the cooling of the sensitive and expensive fuel cell, requires a profound understanding of this technology and the necessary expertise to realise such complex cooling concepts. That is why the company''s experience in thermal, but also air and liquid management, as well as mechatronics and electronics, is combined in its in-house hydrogen test centre in Stuttgart, among other things.

A prerequisite for the broad application of fuel cell technology is the ample availability of cleanly-produced hydrogen. MAHLE therefore joined the Hydrogen Council in 2020, a worldwide initiative of leading industrial companies involved in energy and transport that seeks to establish hydrogen as an essential element of the global energy transition.

The German-based technology group brings with it the necessary core competencies for the development and industrialization of custom-designed solutions, acquired throughout its more than 100 years of history. MAHLE not only represents fuel cell technologies for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, but is also working on the usage of hydrogen in stationary applications, for example in the area of energy supply, and as fuel for combustion engines.