The greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping were estimated to be 2.1% of the global emissions by 2012. In order to decrease them in the future, new measures are being taken but also new alternative power systems employing batteries, hydrogen and fuel cells and the production of alternative fuels are now under development. Currently, several projects are aiming at the implementation of hydrogen and fuel cells in Ro-on/roll-off and passenger (RoPax) ferries. In relation to this, a comparison of hydrogen and fuel cell systems against other technologies such as batteries in terms of costs, system mass and volume is presented in this paper. In addition, an overview of the market potential of RoPax ferries in Europe is given, showing that fuel cells have potential, particularly if their power is scaled up. Finally, we present the first results of the life cycle assessment carried out within the project of HySeas III, which shows that the global warming potential generated by the ship in a 30 year life would decrease by 89% compared to a ship operating with a diesel-electric system
