The maritime passenger transport industry plays a key role in the development of a competitive and resource efficient transport system in the European Union (EU).
Recently, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a strategy to reduce international shipping emissions by 50% up to 2050, compared to 2008. This bring new opportunities towards the adoption of carbon-free fuels, with the hydrogen being the most promising. Given the fleet growth up to 2050 and the needs for a global maritime transportation, the reduction of CO2 emissions demands indeed novel energy efficient technologies, which other commonly used fuels can only support to some extent.
International standards and rules to certify safety on-board and environmental safety standards of hydrogen-based fuels ships, however, are not yet available in the context of passenger transport.

The e-SHyIPS project aims to define the new guidelines for an effective introduction of hydrogen in maritime passenger transport sector and to boost its adoption within the global and EU strategy for a clean and sustainable environment, towards the accomplishment of a zero-emission navigation scenario.
Through an ecosystem approach, where all the main stakeholders from maritime and hydrogen sectors, research and industry will be involved, the e-SHyIPS project will integrate theoretical pre-normative research activities on standards with simulation and laboratory experiments, in order to provide the needed knowledge to design an appropriate certification process and spot future standardization activities to enhance the EU normative and regulatory landscape.

The goal of the e-SHyIPS project is to move from the idea to the application, such as to fill the existing gap in normative and technical knowledge concerning all the related aspects on hydrogen in the maritime transport sector.

The project has five objectives:

• Generate new and missing knowledge to define a standardized database and a data gathering methodology on the arrangement and installation of hydrogen-based fuels systems for propulsion and auxiliary purposes.
• Provide unique experimental data for the definitions of mandatory criteria for the arrangement and installation of machinery, equipment and systems for vessels operating with hydrogen-based fuels to minimize the risk to the ship, its crew, passengers and the environment.
• Propose a pre-standardization plan for IGF code update for the hydrogen-based fuels passenger ships international regulation.
• Provide a roadmap for the adoption of hydrogen-based fuels on passenger ships in EU maritime sector, to boost the hydrogen economy.
• Develop CFD models and tools for ship design and safety assessment, by exploiting the potentialities of Complex System Simulation SWs and HPC, in synergy with the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking