Three consortia of maritime companies and knowledge institutions have received a total of 52.9 million from the Maritime R&D subsidy scheme of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Royal IHC is part of two of these consortia:
According to Royal IHC’s official statement, “we are really happy with this result and are looking forward to – together with our partners – making the maritime industry more sustainable.”
LEAF hopper by Royal IHC
In an innovation partnership with the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat (the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management), Royal IHC is now exploring a new type of vessel that is referred to as the “LEAF” (low energy adaptive fuel) hopper.
The exploration phase began at the beginning of 2019, with the aim to develop a vessel that will be operational in 2024.
Rijkswaterstaat has the ambition to become CO2 neutral by 2030, so it needed to come up with cost-effective solutions that could significantly reduce CO2 from 2023.
With this in mind, Royal IHC has been developing a hydrogen-powered trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) that will be used to maintain the Dutch coastline.