Almatech and e5 Lab team up to decarbonize passenger transport in Japan

e5 Lab and Almatech SA in the industry-academia Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) Innovation Park, agreed on a partnership to promote the Zero Emission Speed ShuTtle (ZESST) and enter the Japanese market. 

ZESST is an innovative hydrogen-fueled, electric-powered, zero-emission passenger shuttle vessel developed by Almatech.  This partnership was signed by videoconference at 16:30 Japan time (9:30 Swiss time) on May 19, 2021, at the Swiss Embassy in Japan and EPFL Innovation Park.

Engineers at Almatech, who have been involved in space technology development and naval architecture for more than 12 years, spent about three years developing ZESST. This hydrogen-fueled shuttle is equipped with high-efficiency hydrogen fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries. Energy consumption per passenger/cruising range is about one-fifth of conventional diesel engine-powered vessels. The hull structure, which uses new-generation composites made with plant-based fibers, realizes a further reduction in the vessel’s environmental impact.

Because ZESST combines speed, comfort, and safety, and uses no fossil fuels at all, it does not exhaust GHGs, SOx, NOx, and PMs, and generates minimal wake and noise. Japan, as a maritime nation, is expected to adopt it as the next-generation Mobility as a Service (MaaS) on the water. The design is adaptable to vessels of various sizes (50~400 passengers) based on a modularized core system.

The ocean shipping industry is one of the sectors aiming to reduce GHG emissions on a global scale, and Japan, as an island country surrounded by sea, also faces urgent and specific needs to reduce GHG output.