This strays a little off-topic for Navagear, but it’s pretty dang cool. I still have hopes that fuel cell technology will make a big splash for sailboats and other displacement-type vessels with low horsepower-to-displacement ratios.

Anyway, check out this story from Science Daily:

Zero CO₂ is the world’s first-hydrogen powered yacht with a fully integrated laboratory to study pollution in the Mediterranean.

[Image courtesy of Université Joseph Fourier]

The objective of the Zero CO₂ project is to sail around the Mediterranean using a clean carbon-free auxiliary motor (gasoline powered motors are commonly used in yachts for all port manoeuvres). The yacht will be presented for the first time at the Paris Boat Show in December 2009.  A 12m craft built by the RM shipyard of La Rochelle, the yacht will be equipped with an electric motor driven by a hydrogen fuel cell, developed by CEA Liten of Grenoble.

 

Test pollution levels in the Mediterranean using a built-in laboratory

A scientific platform installed on the yacht by the University Joseph Fourier (UJF) and its technology transfer subsidiary, Floralis, will be used to collect scientific data on man-made pollution throughout the length of the 10 month trip. The yacht will travel around the Mediterranean coast as far as Turkey on a journey that will commence in March, 2010.

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