Hydrogen-powered passenger vessel to run in Lake Lucerne in 2025

Energy firm Axpo will supply green hydrogen to power the passenger ferry that will operate in Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne. 

PHOTO: Passenger ferry MS Saphir. H2Uri

The vessel, MS Saphir, will be converted to run on a hydrogen fuel cell system by a Swiss shipbuilder Shiptec. The conversion will be completed by autumn next year.

Lake Lucerne Navigation Company (SGV) will operate the vessel, and the conversion project has received backing from Switzerland’s Federal Office of Transport (FOT).

The green hydrogen will be sourced from a hydrogen plant project — H2Uri — in central Switzerland’s Bürglenin, where hydrogen production is slated to start in 2025.

Switzerland-based energy firms EWA-energieUri and AVIA Schätzle are running the H2Uri project and have extended the partnership to include Axpo and SGV for the new hydrogen passenger vessel project.

The production facility will be set up on EWA-energieUri's Bürglen hydroelectric power plant site. It is slated to produce up to 260 mt/year of green hydrogen.

By Manjula Nair

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