Testing of Hybrid Hydrogen-Diesel Engine Retrofits Set to Begin in 2025
As the maritime industry aims to meet the decarbonization targets set by the IMO, shipowners are actively seeking ways to extend the lifespan of their current vessels. A new collaboration has been formed between Lomar Shipping’s innovation division, lomarlabs, and a startup named Newlight to develop hydrogen retrofitting solutions to address this challenge.
Haran Cohen Hillel, CEO of Newlight, stated, “Hydrogen has enormous potential as a maritime fuel, but transitioning entire fleets to pure hydrogen is a long-term challenge. By taking immediate steps with the current fleet, we can decarbonize ship by ship—delivering real impact today.”
Source: Lomar
Newlight has developed a dual-fuel retrofit technology that offers a low capital expenditure solution, allowing existing vessels to incorporate hydrogen as a fuel source. The company claims this technology could reduce fuel consumption by an average of 20 percent.
By retrofitting existing diesel engines to run on a hydrogen blend, the companies believe they can provide an immediate and scalable solution that reduces emissions without the need for a complete overhaul of propulsion systems.
Lomarlabs has announced a strategic partnership that will enable testing of these concepts using a vessel from the Lomar Shipping fleet. They report that workshop trials have shown potential savings of up to 30 percent, and through this collaboration, they aim to replicate these results on board vessels.
Stylianos Papageorgiou, Managing Director of lomarlabs, emphasized:
“Decarbonization isn’t about waiting for the perfect fuel; it’s about acting now with every viable tool at our disposal.”
Newlight’s dual-fuel retrofit technology is expected to provide an immediate, scalable, and cost-effective method for reducing fuel consumption and emissions, representing a practical innovation that bridges the gap between current operational realities and the long-term goal of a net-zero maritime industry.
The collaboration will specifically focus on retrofitting conventional diesel engines to operate on a hydrogen-diesel mix. Lomarlabs and Newlight plan to conduct a pilot installation in the summer of 2025 on a Lomar vessel to gather data and perform harbor and sea trials.
This initiative is one of several projects in lomarlabs‘ portfolio, which also includes efforts to capture CO2 emissions from a vessel’s exhaust, technologies to convert emissions into natural sea salts, and projects aimed at reducing atmospheric methane. Additionally, they are developing autonomous magnetic crawler robots for hull cleaning, working on AI for autonomous navigation, and exploring the CargoKite concept for transporting goods on autonomous ships powered by high-altitude wind kite systems.
