Submarines: ideal fuel cell vehicles

Fuel cells are getting more popular for powering submarines, where they have useful advantages over nuclear power.

Fuel cells apparently make a good submarine hard to find.

Air Products of Pennsylvania this week announced it supplied a new fueling station to supply a state-of-the-art HDW 214 submarine of the Hellenic (Greek) Navy with hydrogen.

The first fueling of its kind in Greece took place this week in Skaramanga, near Athens.

Air Products supplied the integral components of the hydrogen fueling station to the submarine's designer, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW), which has been experimenting with fuel cell technology for submarines since the late 1970s.

HDW's Class 212 and 214 non-nuclear submarines have been developed to use a silent operating fuel cell plant that runs on nine 34-kilowatt Siemens polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cells.

Its air-independent fuel cell propulsion system provides extreme underwater endurance, diving depth and overall efficiency, HDW claims.

The fuel cells, which produce electrical energy from oxygen and hydrogen, allow the submarine to cruise under water for up to three weeks without resurfacing.

Perhaps most importantly, however, because the chemical reactions of fuel cells make no noise and produce no detectable exhaust heat, they make the submarine virtually undetectable, according to designers.

Props for fuel cells.

Conventional diesel-electric submarines typically deplete their battery power after only a few days under water. Nuclear submarines can cruise for months under water, but not everybody wants nuclear submarines, especially if there are alternatives.

Plus, says HDW, fuel cells are still quieter.

The submarine was built by Hellenic Shipyards S.A., part of the new North European shipyard ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which also owns HDW. Germany has four of the boats, with two more on order, and Italy has bought two.

Hellenic Shipyards is planning to build more fuel cell-powered submarines for the Hellenic Navy. And additional contracts are in place to add plug-in fuel cell retrofits to conventional driven submarines.

Air Products is a leader in hydrogen safety and engineering, and in hydrogen production and distribution, including hydrogen fueling stations. It also supplies industrial gases and associated equipment to other industries.