Abstract
Inspection planning, maintainability and safety aspects are yet to be consolidated topics of hydrogen technologies in most of their applications, including the marine sector. The implementation of electricity in the marine sector is almost only appealing for ferries, which in many cases have daily access to recharge stations. In addition, the climate roadmap of the Norwegian fishing fleet estimates that a low environmental impact technology can contribute to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions, especially carbon dioxide, by 2030. In fact, considering the longer working sessions of fishing vessels, the additional weight of batteries, and the considerable occupied volume, it is more than reasonable to discuss fuel cells as a possible solution. Against this background, this paper discusses a case study of a hydrogen-fueled fishing vessel, focusing on risk-based inspection (RBI) and maintenance planning as a way to significantly decrease safety-related uncertainties and optimize the associated operations. Different hydrogen-induced degradation mechanisms have been considered to investigate how the existing RBI standards might lead to an underestimation of the risks associated with the equipment selected for the fishing vessel. In addition, a discussion regarding the limitations in the applicability of standard RBI planning with respect to hydrogen technologies is carried out as an overall result, along with the limits of the implemented approach.
