South Korea’s HD Hyundai, along with its affiliates — HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE), HD Europe Research & Development Centre, and HD Hydrogen — has signed a Joint Development Project (JDP) agreement with DNV, a classification society based in Norway, and German cruise operator TUI Cruises. The purpose is to investigate the use of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems aboard cruise ships.
SOFCs are a form of fuel cell that produces electricity by mixing hydrogen (from natural gas or ammonia) with oxygen. This technique generates energy without requiring combustion, resulting in considerable savings in carbon emissions and contaminants.
With their high efficiency and smooth, silent performance, SOFCs are ideally suited for cruise ships that need reliable and large-scale power generation.
To strengthen its position in the global clean-energy shipbuilding market, HD Hyundai stated that it plans to create SOFC technology especially for cruise ships, with a particular emphasis on the European market.
Over the course of eight months, from June 2025 to February 2026, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and the HD Europe R&D Centre will develop safety design guidelines for SOFC system installation on cruise ships as part of this project. In the meantime, HD Hydrogen will use key technical data to assess how well its unique SOFC systems function under varied operating circumstances.
Furthermore, HD Hyundai is developing methods to recover and repurpose waste heat produced by SOFC systems, which normally run at temperatures ranging from 600°C to 1,000°C. The business also intends to investigate ways to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to partially reduce carbon emissions from SOFCs.
As a component of the undertaking:
From the very beginning of design, DNV will promote regulatory compliance and enhance overall safety.
In addition to sharing installation and operational parameters required for real deployment, TUI Cruises will supply cruise ship-specific data pertinent to the SOFC application.
An HD Hyundai representative made the following observation:
“This global collaborative development initiative is a significant step towards introducing HD Hyundai’s top-tier ship decarbonisation technology to the European market. By using our high-efficiency, low-carbon fuel cell technology, we hope to take the lead in maritime decarbonisation initiatives.
As a key step in its broader push into the hydrogen fuel cell industry, HD Hyundai launched HD Hydrogen in 2024. Since then, the business has been working with different shipping companies to increase the number of vessels that use SOFC systems.