Bureau Veritas, Vinssen and NTU Singapore to develop hydrogen fuelled vessels

Singapore, 27 Apr 2022, Bureau Veritas (BV), Vinssen Co. Ltd (Vinssen) and the EcoLabs Centre of Innovation for Energy (EcoLabs) at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with plans to demonstrate commercialisation of eco-friendly marine propulsion system technology and products in Singapore and Korea.

Under the agreement, BV, Vinssen and EcoLabs, which is based in the university’s Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), will be working together to develop a pilot project in Singapore demonstrating hydrogen-based power generation by discovering in-depth knowledge about hydrogen to be used as an eco-friendly marine fuel by integrating hydrogen fuel cell systems on harbour crafts.

Mr David Barrow, Vice-President of Bureau Veritas South Asia Zone, Marine & Offshore said: “Bureau Veritas is glad to have the industrial expert, Vinssen and a world-renowned university NTU Singapore working together hand in hand to come up with solutions for the changing industry needs. With strong industrial collaboration, BV shall continue to provide turn-key services for marine environment protection and innovation towards sustainable maritime.”

BV’s new Centre of Excellence – innovation, and Centre for Alternative and Renewable Energy (iCARE), will be leading the initiative and is looking forward to working with Vinssen and NTU’s EcoLabs to produce commercially feasible studies that could empower organisations to take up sustainable growth and work towards a greener future together.

Mr Koh Shu Yong, Director of iCARE said: “iCARE is proud to be a part of the project that can contribute back to the maritime industry. Having a strong industry collaboration to co-create solutions for sustainability and forging ahead on at our best pursuing innovation in policy and technology for decarbonisation”.

Vinssen is a pioneering enterprise of environmentally friendly marine mobilities. To reduce greenhouse emissions, Vinssen continues to steadily invest on research and strategies to develop a sustainable propulsion system to reduce greenhouse emissions with primary focus in applying the hydrogen fuel cell system and electric vehicle battery (EVB) technology to ship building and marine industry.

Mr Chil-han Lee, CEO of Vinssen said: “Vinssen is actively developing propulsion and control systems for alternative marine fuels including Hydrogenia, Korea’s first commercial hydrogen electric boat. We take pride in our efforts to create environmentally friendly products that will have a positive impact on our customers while also reducing pollution on our planet. With collaboration with NTU and BV iCARE, we hope to extend our product portfolio to Singapore and beyond.”

EcoLabs Centre of Innovation for Energy is accelerating deep-tech energy innovation capabilities in Singapore to support the nation’s future energy transition in collaborating with diverse corporate and venture capital partners to provide unique innovation programmes for the deep tech start-ups to translate their ideas and de-risk their innovation efforts towards commercialization.

Mr Mahesh Kumar, Programme Director at the EcoLabs Centre of Innovation (COI) for Energy, said, “Hydrogen is a key element in decarbonised economy. This partnership is expected to benefit local ecosystem here while facilitating energy transition and associated infrastructure developments for decarbonization. We are pleased to support the development of the project through our extensive network of global partners, including corporate partners, government agencies, investors, research institutions and other successful startups.”

Following the agreement, the parties will be moving on to make detailed discussions on the project.

About Bureau Veritas

Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has more than 80,000 employees located in more than 1,600 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its clients improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions, in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.

innovation, and Centre for Alternative and Renewable Energy (“iCARE”) is a newly formed Centre of Excellence to promote BV’s sustainability drives for maritime industry. Together with BV’s green line of services & solutions, and other core competencies within its global network and industrial collaborations, iCARE empowers organizations to implement, measure and achieve their sustainability objectives.

About Vinssen

Vinssen Co. Ltd. develops and manufactures electric propulsion and hydrogen fuel cell eco-friendly ships and propulsion systems, and holds numerous patents, such as electric propulsion for ships, hydrogen fuel cell supply for ships, and electric propulsion leisure boat designs. It aims to convert small ships, which are mostly equipped with diesel engines, into eco-friendly propulsion ships such as electric and hydrogen.

For more information, visit https://www.vinssen.com

About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. It also has a medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, set up jointly with Imperial College London.

NTU is also home to world-class autonomous institutes – the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).

Ranked amongst the world’s top universities by QS, NTU has also been named the world’s top young university for the past seven years. The University’s main campus is frequently listed among the Top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world, and it has 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) building projects, of which 95% are certified Green Mark Platinum. Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a campus in Singapore’s healthcare district.

Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources.

For more information, visit www.ntu.edu.sg

About ERI@N

Established in 2010, the Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N) distinguishes itself through research excellence directed towards outcomes of industry relevance, with focus on systems-level research for tropical megacities. The Institute integrates research across NTU in the context of the energy challenge, and then helps translate outcomes into industry and practice.

The Institute’s research focuses on a host of Interdisciplinary Research Programmes, Flagship Programmes, Consortium Platform and an Accelerator Programme that covers the energy value chain from generation to innovative end-use solutions, motivated by industrialisation and deployment.

For more information, visit https://www.ntu.edu.sg/erian

About EcoLabs

The Ecolabs Centre of Innovation for Energy is established (jointly by NTU, Enterprise Singapore, and SEAS) to build and accelerate deep-tech energy innovation capabilities in Singapore to support the nation’s future energy transition. This joint initiative aims to help Singapore based energy Start-ups and SMEs by providing them with essential translation facilities and connections, such as research & development manpower, lab infrastructure, testbed sites and business opportunities to help them successfully commercialise and scale their innovation efforts.

For more information, visit https://www.ecolabs.sg