Scotland-based Orkney College has entered discussions with the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to develop a crew training programme for hydrogen-fuelled vessels navigating in British home waters.
The course will streamline the qualification processes for seafarers, making training more accessible and reducing costs for operators while maintaining the same standards and content, said Mark Shiner, Head of Maritime Studies and Engineering at Orkney College, in an interview with Bunkerspot.
Shiner explained that the new training will deliver the same content as Orkney College’s course which recently received official recognition from the MCA, but it will remove duplicated requirements for crews of ships operated in the UK’s estuaries and limited distances at sea. This includes inter-island, coasters and crew transfer vessels.
Currently, crews working on hydrogen-fuelled vessels must hold a STCW-IGF certificate, which requires them to complete a full LNG-focused course in addition to hydrogen-specific training.
‘The majority, if not the entirety of IGF training available today focuses on LNG,’ Shiner explained. ‘So, if you have a small hydrogen ferry, you need to send your crew on a full LNG course, bring them back, and then send them on a full hydrogen course.’
Instead, training will be delivered in a single three-day course, covering hydrogen characteristics, safety management systems, vessel-specific plans, decision-making support, emergency scenarios, fire management and bunkering. It will also include more advanced knowledge of the fuel for people with an executive role on the vessel.
‘There is no compromise in terms of the quality of the training, but it lessens the pre-requisite burden and the training burden for vessel operators and the crews themselves,’ Shiner added. ‘It will give them a much simpler timeline from starting training to being qualified.’
Orkney College expects to run a first MCA-supervised pilot for the new home-waters course in spring 2025, pending formal recognition from the Agency.
There is already demand for hydrogen training from vessels funded by the UK’s Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) and Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) programmes, Shiner noted.
