BeHydro Receives First-Ever Type Approval for a 100% Hydrogen Marine Engine

Lloyd’s Register has issued the first Type Approval Certificate ever granted for a 100% hydrogen-fuelled, spark-ignited marine engine. The recipient is BeHydro, the Belgian joint venture between CMB.TECH and Anglo Belgian Corporation. Available in four cylinder configurations from 1,000 kW to 2,670 kW, the engine operates on pure hydrogen without any pilot fuel — making it the first certified marine internal combustion engine that produces zero onboard carbon emissions across its entire operating range.

⚡ TL;DR

What: LR issues world's first Type Approval Certificate for a 100% hydrogen-fuelled spark-ignited marine engine — BeHydro's mono-fuel range.
Who: BeHydro, a JV between CMB.TECH and Anglo Belgian Corporation (ABC Engines), Ghent.
Power range: 900 kW to 2,670 kW across four cylinder configurations (6, 8, 12, and 16 cylinders).
Key difference from dual-fuel: No pilot fuel required; combustion is entirely hydrogen via spark ignition — zero onboard carbon.
What's next: Three 6-cylinder sets destined for Japanese zero-emission vessels under the JPNH₂YDRO / Nippon Foundation programme.

BeHydro and the Engine Family

BeHydro was founded as a joint venture between two Belgian organisations with complementary hydrogen interests: CMB.TECH, the decarbonisation arm of the Compagnie Maritime Belge shipping group, and Anglo Belgian Corporation (ABC Engines), a century-old premium engine manufacturer headquartered in Ghent. The logic of the partnership is straightforward: CMB.TECH brings shipowner demand and operational context; ABC brings engine design, manufacturing, and testing infrastructure.

The BeHydro engine family covers a wide power range through four cylinder configurations, all based on a common platform that can run in either dual-fuel (DF) or mono-fuel (100% H₂) mode:

Model	Cylinders	Configuration	Max power (mono)
6 DZ H2	6 inline	—	~1,000 kW
8 DZ H2	8 inline	—	~1,335 kW
12 DZ H2	12 V-engine	—	~2,000 kW
16 DZ H2	16 V-engine	—	2,670 kW

The dual-fuel variants — designated with a “(D)” suffix — operate on a blend of 85% hydrogen and 15% liquid pilot fuel, and have been available since LR’s 2023 type approval. The mono-fuel variants now certified in June 2026 eliminate the pilot fuel entirely: 100% hydrogen in, water vapour out.

The full power range of the certified mono-fuel family spans approximately 900 kW to 2,670 kW, covering workboat, tug, ferry, and medium-sized commercial vessel applications.

What Changes With Spark Ignition

The combustion engineering behind the 100% hydrogen engine is the technically interesting part of this approval. Understanding it requires a brief comparison with the dual-fuel approach that preceded it.

Dual-fuel (DF) operation works by injecting a small quantity of liquid pilot fuel — diesel or HFO — to initiate combustion through compression ignition, the same mechanism as a conventional marine diesel. The hydrogen-air mixture then burns around the pilot flame. The 15% pilot fuel requirement is not just a convenience; it is an engineering necessity for compression ignition of hydrogen, which has a very wide flammability range and low ignition energy, making controlled auto-ignition difficult to manage without the pilot.

Mono-fuel (SI) operation removes this dependency entirely by switching to spark ignition. An electric spark provides the ignition energy, eliminating the need for pilot fuel and giving the engine control system precise authority over ignition timing — which is important for hydrogen because of its tendency toward pre-ignition and knock at high compression ratios. The result is simpler system architecture (no dual-fuel handling infrastructure), lower lifecycle carbon footprint, and — crucially — zero onboard carbon emissions from any operating mode.

From a naval architect’s perspective, the SI approach also simplifies vessel bunkering and system design: you are installing a hydrogen-only vessel with a single fuel system, not a dual-fuel vessel that happens to prefer hydrogen. That matters for newbuild design as well as for shipowners calculating operational exposure to liquid fuel price volatility.

The combustion products are water vapour and atmospheric nitrogen compounds. No CO₂, no SOₓ, no particulate matter. The NOₓ profile of hydrogen combustion is a genuine design challenge at high temperatures, but BeHydro and ABC have been working on combustion management approaches through the development programme.

Three Milestones in Six Years: LR’s Hydrogen Certification Journey

The June 2026 approval is the third major certification step in a progression that began in 2020:

Date	Milestone	Significance
September 2020	LR Approval in Principle (AiP) for BeHydro dual-fuel H2 engine	First AiP for hydrogen marine ICE
November 2023	LR Type Approval for BeHydro dual-fuel H2 engine	First type approval for any hydrogen marine engine
June 2026	LR Type Approval for BeHydro 100% H2 engine	First type approval for 100% hydrogen, zero-carbon marine ICE

Each step expanded the regulatory envelope. The AiP confirmed the concept was certifiable in principle. The 2023 dual-fuel approval proved the technology against LR’s rules in physical testing at ABC’s Ghent facility. The 2026 approval applies the same rigour to the mono-fuel configuration — a distinct engine variant with different combustion management requirements.

Claudene Sharp-Patel, Lloyd’s Register’s Global Technical Director, stated: “The issue of this Type Approval Certificate demonstrates that hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engine technology is continuing to mature as a viable option for maritime applications.”

This is also worth reading against LR’s other recent hydrogen certification work. The ShipRight Risk Based Certification granted to RV Prince Madog earlier this month established a regulatory pathway for hydrogen fuel cell retrofits. The BeHydro type approval does the same for hydrogen combustion engines — a different technology, but part of the same institutional effort to build out hydrogen’s regulatory infrastructure across propulsion types.

Tim Berckmoes, CEO of Anglo Belgian Corporation, framed the significance from the OEM perspective: “This LRS type approval of our BeHydro 100% hydrogen engines with zero emissions is a confirmation of the future proof technology that BeHydro can offer to innovative shipowners worldwide.”

From Antwerp to Japan: The Vessels Already in the Pipeline

The commercial context matters here. BeHydro’s hydrogen engines are not a laboratory concept — they are already operating at sea.

Hydrotug 1, operated at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges by CMB.TECH, became the world’s first hydrogen-powered tugboat when it entered service in late 2023. Its propulsion plant uses two BeHydro V12 dual-fuel engines, each rated at 2 MW — the DF variant, not the new 100% H₂ model. The Hydrotug demonstrated that BeHydro engines can handle the demanding duty cycle of a harbour tug: frequent acceleration, high instantaneous power demand, and prolonged low-speed manoeuvring.

For the 100% H₂ mono-fuel engine now type-approved, the first confirmed application points to Japan. Three sets of inline 6-cylinder BeHydro 100% hydrogen engines have been designated for zero-emission vessels to be built by JPNH₂YDRO, with support from the Nippon Foundation Zero Emission Ships Project. This is notable for two reasons: it is the first commercial commitment to the mono-fuel engine variant, and it represents the technology’s first deployment outside Western Europe.

The 6-cylinder inline engine at approximately 1,000 kW per set would give those vessels a combined propulsion capacity of around 3,000 kW per ship — appropriate for a coastal or inland waterway passenger vessel or a light offshore support vessel.

The hydrogen-powered ships database already includes several BeHydro-equipped vessels across Europe. The JPNH₂YDRO vessels will extend the database’s coverage into the Asia-Pacific region, where hydrogen propulsion demonstration programmes are accelerating.

Why This Matters for the Maritime Industry

The significance of this type approval operates on two levels.

First, it resolves a regulatory gap. Type approval from a major classification society is the threshold event for commercial deployment at scale. Without it, shipowners considering hydrogen propulsion face unacceptable project risk: the engine they are designing around may not be certifiable for their vessel’s class. With LR’s type approval in place, BeHydro’s mono-fuel engine can be specified in newbuild contracts, included in class drawings, and ordered with commercial confidence. This is not a small thing.

Second, it confirms the viability of hydrogen ICE — not just fuel cells. Much of the attention in maritime hydrogen propulsion goes to fuel cells, and for good reason: they are efficient, quiet, and scaleable. But internal combustion engines remain dominant in marine propulsion for their reliability, power density, repairability at sea, and compatibility with existing vessel configurations. A certified 100% hydrogen ICE means that shipowners can pursue zero-carbon propulsion without making the jump to an entirely different propulsion technology. For operators already familiar with medium-speed diesel engines, the BeHydro transition is evolutionary, not revolutionary.

This is relevant context for the lessons we drew from the Future Proof Shipping bankruptcy. One of the central takeaways was the importance of conventional fuel fallback. The BeHydro platform navigates this explicitly: the dual-fuel DF variants retain liquid fuel capability, while the mono-fuel SI variants are designed for operations where hydrogen supply is reliable. Shipowners can choose their position on that risk spectrum based on their operational context.

Challenges and Open Questions

Hydrogen supply remains the binding constraint. A type-approved engine cannot be ordered and delivered tomorrow. The vessel project that installs it needs a committed hydrogen supply chain at its home port. As we covered with the Klaipėda port hydrogen station, that infrastructure is emerging but not yet widespread.
NOₓ management at high loads. Hydrogen combustion in air produces water and — at high temperatures — nitrogen oxides. The management of NOₓ at full rated power is an area where the SI engine’s combustion control strategy is critical. BeHydro has not published detailed NOₓ data for the mono-fuel variant; transparency here would be valuable for the wider industry.
Type approval vs. fleet approval. LR’s type approval certifies the engine design. Each vessel installation still requires individual class approval, which is where vessel-specific integration challenges (hydrogen storage, piping, ventilation) get resolved. The type approval shortens that process significantly, but does not eliminate it.
Fuel cost parity. At current hydrogen prices — typically €15–20/kg in Northern European markets — the operational economics of a 100% H₂ ICE are substantially more expensive than diesel. The commercial case depends either on subsidised hydrogen, carbon pricing mechanisms such as FuelEU Maritime, or a significant reduction in green hydrogen production costs over the 2030s.

Sources

Source: Hellenic Shipping News / LR Press Release / Marine Link / ABC Engines