Startup company looks to develop fusion-powered ships
Fusion energy for commercial use is a technology that is yet to be realized, but one company is already setting its sights on taking it from land to sea.
As Justin Cohen, CEO of start-up Maritime Fusion, put it, “I’m pretty sure we’re the first people to ever really look at what is it like to put a tokamak on a ship.” In a recent article in TechCrunch, Cohen talked about his San Francisco-based company and its plans to build fusion reactors for powering ships and off-grid energy markets.
The plans: Maritime Fusion is focused on developing a complete ship-based propulsion system—tokamak, shielding, cryogenic plant, magnet power supplies, tritium handling, heat conversion, and other systems—that would be far smaller than the large fuel tanks needed for ammonia- or hydrogen-powered vessels.
The company has targeted first deployment in 2032. “Because of the reduced size and complexity compared to grid plants, we do not plan on first constructing an intermediate device; we're going straight for full scale,” Cohen told TechCrunch.
HTS cables: Maritime Fusion is commercializing high temperature superconducting (HTS) cable technology for power distribution while advancing the physics basis of the HTS tokamak to decarbonize global shipping, according to the article.
The HTS cables will ultimately form the basis of the magnets that the tokamak needs to confine the plasma required for the fusion reaction.
High costs: The company estimates that the cost to build its first power plant—named Yinsen—will be about $1.1 billion, with 40 percent of that cost going to the HTS magnet. With mass manufacturing and a cheaper HTS, Cohen believes that nth-of-a-kind units will be far less expensive. Projections on the company’s website place the cost around $125/MWh LCOE (megawatt-hours levelized cost of energy). Once complete, Yinsen would be capable of generating 30 MW of electricity.
Raising money: The article also notes that Maritime Fusion raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by Trucks VC with participation from Aera VC, Alumni Ventures, Paul Graham, Y Combinator, and several other angel investors.
