Hydrogen fuel cells now have a solution to their infrastructure gap
Reflections from Advanced Maritime Technology 2026, including e1 Marine’s joint presentation with PowerCell Group on integrated methanol-to-power by Dave Lee, Executive Director at e1 Marine.
There were not many fuel cell companies on the floor at Advanced Maritime Technology this year, and that’s a current reflection of the market. The technology works. The regulatory pressure to use it is building through the IMO, FuelEU Maritime and the EU ETS, but adoption is slower than it should be due to the lack of current hydrogen infrastructure to support it.
Alongside Dr Andreas Bodén, CTO of PowerCell Group, we demonstrated how real progress in new technologies is circumnavigating hydrogen’s infrastructure gaps to bring a proven, practical approach to applying hydrogen-powered fuel cells onboard vessels using methanol as an intermediary.
Why we are using methanol to solve a hydrogen problem
Most discussions about hydrogen at sea include the current absence of a physical bunkering network. Compressed and liquid hydrogen need dedicated supply chains, dedicated storage and dedicated handling, none of which is in place at the scale shipping needs. Operators are being asked to commit to a fuel they cannot reliably get in the near term.
Methanol reframes that narrative. It is a liquid already available at more than 100 major ports worldwide and handled by systems and processes that exist today. e1 Marine's solutions recognise and leverage that reality. Our reformers generate fuel-cell-grade hydrogen onboard or onshore, on demand, from a methanol and water blend, with no high-pressure hydrogen storage required. Vessels carry methanol and make hydrogen where and when it’s needed. That single step removes the part of the hydrogen pathway that is holding everyone else up.
What our fuel cell partnership delivers
Integrating technologies with PowerCell creates value for customers as well as contributing to progressing the wider systems integration pathway to providing renewable, scaling energy for vessels.
Put simply, on its own, a reformer is a hydrogen source, and a fuel cell is a power source. Bringing them together into one packaged system is where the engineering effort usually lands, and that effort normally falls on the shipyard or the integrator.
Rather than provide a yard a collection of components to integrate every time, the M2Power 250 takes the hard work away: it combines e1 Marine's reformer technology with PowerCell's fuel cell in a single unit with one interface, delivering 250 kW of net power, zero NOx, SOx and particulate emissions at the point of use, and Approval in Principle from DNV. The yard sees one system to install rather than two technologies to reconcile. That’s the logic that resonates – taking a fuel that is already available, pairing it with clean power generation, and packaging the difficult part so that adoption gets easier and more scalable.
The questions we kept getting
Three topics came up repeatedly during AMT. These circled around power output, footprint and, “why methanol”. On power, the reality is that we are at the start of a curve, not the end of it. The M2Power 250 is a building block. For example, a newbuild we are supporting uses eight of them for a 2 MW installation, which shows where modular stacking can lead to. On size and integration, the single-unit approach is the answer to the concern, since a proven system is being installed rather than designing one from scratch.
Why methanol is the more interesting question, because it is really a question about timing. The marine industry can wait for green hydrogen bunkering to mature, or owners and operators in segments where modular fuel cell power already fits – including ferries, yachts, workboats, commercial vessels, inland and short-sea applications, and port operations – can act now with a fuel that is already in the system and cut emissions amongst other operational benefits, today.
e1 Marine’s figures, independently validated by Thetius and mapped against EPA and IMO benchmarks, show a methanol-reformed fuel cell delivering meaningful CO2e reductions (10-27%) against a diesel engine even on grey methanol, rising substantially with green methanol (up to 85%), alongside a near-total cut in local air pollutants. The environmental case does not depend on a clean fuel supply that has not arrived yet and the net impact improves as use scales.
Beyond the vessel
Our partnership is already working. We have live projects that include a large yacht retrofit in Europe and the multi-megawatt newbuild that I referred to above. We previously participated in a CARB and AQMD-funded port project in California, where our system paired with STAX Engineering's emissions capture barge to support the reduction of NOx, particulates and CO2.
The same core methanol-to-hydrogen technology can also be applied ashore, and that is where this goes next. e1 Marine’s containerised port and shore power solutions, alongside PowerCell’s land-side fuel cell systems, extend the same technology pathway into port environments. For ports facing emissions pressure, and in many cases, grids that are years away from supporting cold ironing or electrified equipment at scale, a grid-independent methanol-to-power system provides a deployable option today.
Where this goes next
If a reader takes one thing away, let it be this: integrated methanol-to-power is deployable today, and it gives many vessel and terminal operators a credible way forward at a moment when many are struggling to find one.
The hydrogen infrastructure gap will not close overnight, and PowerCell and e1 Marine are working on marine and port solutions so that operators do not have to wait for it to. Within this we are focused on pushing the systems toward higher power output to meet a wider range of needs.
If you would like to talk integration, we’d love to connect. Contact us to discuss at info@e1Marine.com
About the speakers:
Dave Lee is Executive Director at e1 Marine and VP of Innovation and Technology at Maritime Partners, focused on integrating next-generation power solutions into real-world maritime applications. With over 25 years’ experience across engineering, operations and commercial roles, he brings practical insight to system integration, deployment strategy, and investment decision-making across the maritime energy transition.
Dr. Andreas Bodén is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at PowerCell Group. He holds a Master of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Science (PhD) in Chemical Engineering with a focus on fuel cells from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Over 20 years of international experience in research, development and commercialization of fuel cells – from roles at KTH, CRIEPI (Japan) and Volvo Technology to senior positions within PowerCell Group.
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