Pisa, January 29-30, 2026 – The NavHyS partners successfully held their 12-Month General Assembly, hosted by Gas and Heat in Pisa, Italy, marking a key milestone in the project’s journey towards advancing the use of liquid hydrogen in the shipping sector.
Over the course of the two-day assembly, participants engaged in a series of workshops, technical presentations, and work package reviews.
These sessions provided the opportunity to showcase the technical progress achieved during the first year, assess current challenges, and align on priorities for the upcoming phases.
The Assembly showcased significant progress across all major work packages:
- LH₂ onboard tank: A preliminary design of the tank, tailored to the specific requirements of liquid hydrogen storage, has been completed.
- LH₂ fuel system: A reference architecture for the system has been selected, preliminarily confirming the technical opportunities unlocked by the integration of LH₂
- Offshore wind support vessel: The general arrangement, system designs and all relevant technical documentation, have been developed, and a conceptual 3D render of the ship, illustrating the integration of the LH₂ tank and the fuel system on board, has been created.
- Ship operations specification: The technical and operational requirements for the hydrogen-fuelled vessel have been defined.
- Hydrogen refuelling supply chain: A preliminary bunkering protocol has been proposed.
- Life Cycle Assessment: A framework for conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been established to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of the NavHyS solutions.
- Safety analysis: A mini-HAZID, identifying potential hazards related to LH₂ bunkering, storage, transfer, and onboard use, has been conducted.
“The progress achieved in the first year of the project clearly validates our direction”, says Lennart Seifert, Project Coordinator of NavHyS and Programme Manager at ArianeGroup Germany. “With the core technical pillars now defined, we are well positioned to move into the next phase—transforming these concepts into robust, integrated systems ready for real-world application.”
With a solid technical foundation now in place and strong collaboration across the consortium, NavHyS is entering its next stage with confidence. The coming months will focus on further integration, validation, and refinement of the project’s solutions, bringing the maritime sector one step closer to the safe and sustainable adoption of liquid hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel.
