September 4^th 6:01 pm. hirbalaton.hu/i

The first Hungarian developed hydrogen-powered fuel cell ship was introduced in Balatonkenese at a conference organized by Balaton Boat Show event on Friday. At the event organized by the National Hydrogen-technological platform, the head of committee stated that the future of transportation lies within the hydrogen-powered fuel cells, be it ships, cars, buses, or trains.

According to information provided by István Lepsényi currently there are about 200 electric ships on Lake Balaton, but in the ships of the newest technology electric power is not provided by batteries, but hydrogen fuel cells. He also added that electric vehicles are important to maintain the cleanliness of the lake, and from among these options hydrogen fuel cell solution is the most effective with the longest range.

In case of battery-based electric ships the batteries do not last for very long — for about half an hour or forty-five minutes —, which is barely enough to traverse the lake. The range of a ship powered by hydrogen fuel cell is around 80 kilometers, he added. As he previously stated, the only problem is that there are not any hydrogen stations for refill in Hungary yet. These can be found in Austria and Germany, but according to István Lepsényi vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cell will really raise interest among companies dealing with fuel.

He emphasized that hydrogen is a useful tool for creating a cleaner environment we can live in in the future. Based on his opinion accumulators are not practical from an environmental point of view, by recharging electricity is usually generated by burning fossils. In this case, no matter somebody uses electric vehicle, carbon-monoxide is still produced, only not at the vehicle, but somewhere else. However, hydrogen can perfectly replace fossil based energy sources, furthermore with the launch of Paks II in Hungary, there will be enough hydrogen without producing carbon-monoxide, stated István Lepsényi.

According to the reports made by the producer Kontakt-Elektro Ltd of Pécs, the ship presented in Balatonkenese is 950 kilograms in weight, 6.2 meters long, 2.1 meters wide and its draught is 0.5 meters, 7+1 person can be transported on board at a maximum speed of 22 kilometers per hour. The capacity of the fuel cell is 15 kilowatts, its lifespan is about twenty thousand working hours. The ship can store 2.88 kilograms of hydrogen which produces 46 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Using that on full power, the ship can travel 66 kilometers in about 3 hours, but by decreasing the performance the distance can be increased.