Port of Klaipeda commissions Lithuania’s first hydrogen-electric ship

The Klaipeda State Seaport Authority has instructed Western Baltija Shipbuilding (WBS) to build Lithuania’s first hydrogen-electric ship.

The tanker, which is 42 metres long and 10 metres wide, will be capable of collecting 400 cubic metres of liquid waste. It will be fitted with two electric motors powered by 2,000 kilowatt hour (kWh) batteries and an onboard hydrogen fuel cell system.

To improve the quality of its garbage collecting service from ships, WBS has opted to adopt contemporary, ecologically friendly equipment.

According to the port, the main challenge for shipbuilders is designing and building a ship capable of collecting oily bilge water, sewage, sludge and other trash. The ship will require waste collecting tanks and an oily bilge water treatment plant to treat the waste waters and transmit them to the city’s onshore wastewater treatment plant.

Algis Latakas, Director General of the Klaipėda State Seaport Authority, said: “The Port Authority has undertaken very ambitious projects in recent years. In a couple of years, the company will become the first one in Lithuania not only to produce green hydrogen but also to have a hydrogen-powered ship.

“It will also clean other ships entering the port by collecting waste from them without leaving an environmental footprint. We are proud that a new, modern, and environmentally friendly tanker is being built not somewhere abroad, but here in Lithuania, at the Port of Klaipėda.”

Jüri Taal, Management Board Member of Baltic Workboats, added: “It will be the first tanker type vessel ever built with Baltic Workboats participation and in addition to electric propulsion solution in which Baltic Workboats has extensive expertise it will be the first vessel to be fitted with hydrogen power plant in Baltic Workboats portfolio.”

The port authority commissioned a €12 million ($12.8 million) ship-building project, which is being built by Baltic Workboats via a joint operating agreement with Western Baltija Shipbuilding. The ship is scheduled to arrive in Klaipėda before the end of next year.

In October 2023, the Port of Klaipėda successfully monitored 140 ships for exhaust gas quality along Lithuania’s Baltic Sea coast and port waters as part of a three-month drone mission.