JULES VERNE 150TH ANNIVERSARY WORLD HYDROGEN CHALLENGE 1874

PREDICTION 150th ANNIVERSARY - In 1874, Jules Verne predicted that water would provide power to surpass coal. He also postulated that is was possible to travel around the world in 80 days.

It was Jules Verne who suggested that it might be possible to travel 'Around The World In 80 Days, with £20,000 pounds riding on the outcome of his protagonist; Philleas Fogg. He was right about that, many times over today, except that hydrogen ships have not yet broken the 80 day barrier. Indeed, as we write, there are no rules for H2 powered ships, only interim guidelines. That is now far ahead this proposal is.

In 1874, Jules Verne set out a prescient vision that has inspired governments and entrepreneurs in the 147 years since. In his book The Mysterious Island, Verne wrote of a world where:

"water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable."

LEG	NAUTICAL MILES	BUNKERING	WAYPOINT LEG	SUNSHINE DAYS
-	-	-	-	-
START	-	-	-	-
-	-	FILL UP	Gibraltar	00.00
1	729	-	Tenerife, Canary Islands*	1.90
2	3,154	-	Trinidad, Port of Spain*	8.21
3	1st leg (5065) 1,182	1	Panama City	3.00
4	970	-	Galapagos*	2.45
5	2nd leg (4610) 3,640	2	Tahiti	9.48
6	1,423	-	Tonga, Nukualofa*	3.71
7	410	-	Fiji, Suva*	1.07
8	1,886	-	Port Moresby PNG*	4.91
9	340	-	Thursday Island, Cape York*	0.88
10	3rd leg (4783) 724	3	Darwin	1.89
11	1,572	-	Jakarta, Indonesia*	4.09
12	1,881	(4 alt)	Colombo, Sri Lanka*	4.90
13	4th leg (5562) 2,109	4	Aden, Yemen	5.49
14	698	-	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia*	1.82
15	670	-	Port Said, Egypt*	1.75
16	1,111	-	Palermo, Sicily*	2.89
17	170	-	Naples, Italy*	0.44
18	5th leg (3589) 940	FINISH	Gibraltar	3.01
-	-	-	-	-
-	(shorter route 23,000	-	RUNTIME DAYS @ 12.5kts	76.67
-	bypassing non-bunker *)	(ADD 4 DAYS)	RUNTIME DAYS @ 13kts	73.71
-	-	-	-	-
-	-	(ADD 4 DAYS)	14 KNOTS AVE INC	70.26
-	-	-	AT 15 KNOTS AVE	65.58
-	-	-	AT 16 KNOTS AVE	61.48

IT IS POSSIBLE - The father of science fiction was right. But if we are to begin such an extraordinary journey on time, we need to move on the project immediately. We have begun the process with the above (draft) schedule. We have also undertaken preliminary calculations, that bear out the hypothesis. Please help us to make this happen if you are in a position to do so.

FUEL TANKS - Liquefied hydrogen has a temperature of -253 °C and is one of the coldest cryogenic gases there is, which places system components and materials under extreme stresses. Once liquefied, hydrogen is reduced to 1/800th of its volume compared to that of its gas phase, facilitating a more-efficient distribution. But it needs fuel tanks four times the size of those for petrol.

At present, there are no facilities to fill ships with liquid hydrogen at docksides. This is a logistics, as much as a vessel design challenge. Needing the clout of the industry to back us in an adventure that Jules Verne would be proud of.