May 23, 2013 — National Maritime Day on May 22 is a holiday created by Congress in 1933 to honor America’s sea-going industry. It marks the day when the steamship Savannah set sail from Georgia on the first ever transoceanic voyage under steam power.
As celebrations are underway, another maritime benchmark will be set as the first full container of 18 tons of fresh salmon from Chile is offloaded from a cargo ship in California after an iceless month at sea.
How can that be? By using fuel cell technology in a new way.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device that converts hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process, produces electricity.
“We use that capability and take out the oxygen from a palletized, plastic wrapped container of fish to less than 200 parts per million. So we basically cause the fish to go dormant and extend their natural shelf life,” explained Mark Barnekow, CEO of California-based Global Fresh Foods. “It all gets done at the processing plant before it even gets loaded on the truck.”
More than 30 shipments of fresh Chilean farmed salmon, as well as tilapia and barramundi from Asian countries, have been delivered so far to the east coast of the U.S., to Japan and vans will soon set sail for Europe. The company plans to expand to shipping other seafood species as well.
“Throughout each shipment our fuel cell wakes up every 10 minutes and reads the atmosphere. If it detects the oxygen levels have risen, it actually scavenges it to keep the level low,” said Barnekow of GFF’s patented SAF-D system.
The technology also fits with GFF’s green” shipping philosophy.
Read the full story at The Seward Pheonix LOG