Shipbuilder Piriou has announced that it has signed a deal with the French Occitanie region for the design of a trailing suction hopper dredger, equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell, which will be used for the maintenance of harbors in the Gulf of Lion.

Designed in collaboration with the LMG Marin naval architecture agency, the dredger will have a 1,500m3  capacity for dredged sediment. More significantly, it will also be equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell, which it is claimed will reduce fuel oil consumption by up to 20%.

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The vessel is due to be delivered in 2023. Vincent Faujour, Piriou group CEO, commented. “In obtaining this new contract we are happy we won the trust of the Occitanie Region of southern France and for them we will realize an innovative and complex vessel able to answer the requirements of very demanding operating conditions and optimum comfort for its crew. Integrating a fuel cell, batteries and hydrogen storage containers on a dredger is – beyond the environmental benefit – a technological challenge that we take up as a player in the French marine hydrogen sector. Thanks to its low environmental impact, this future dredger will participate in the energy transition undertaken in the merchant marine sector.”