Seems like it’s only been a few months since Boundary Layer announced its $5 million funding round, but the company hasn’t stopped on its laurels. Its founders told me today that they have signed a number of powerful launch partners and are gearing up for large-scale deployment in early 2025.
The company is planning to operate high-speed, hydrogen-powered cargo ships called the ARGO – the threatening-looking monster at the top of this article. The ships offer zero-emissions transportation options. The company hopes that its solutions can compete with regional air freight.
The company’s flagship ARGO will be powered by green liquid hydrogen and a CO ., zero-emission fuel cell2 during operation. It’s an attractive feature for companies trying to cut their climate impact. Reducing reliance on air freight is an important aspect of that.
Marcus LeMaster, global director of Sustainable Logistics at Schneider Electric, said: “We recognize that new technologies such as ARGO play an important role in reducing our carbon footprint, particularly in in hard-to-mitigate sectors such as air transport. “As a launch partner, we look forward to supporting [Boundary Layer] when they bring the product to market. “
Ed Kearney, CEO of Boundary Layer Technologies, bets on the company’s future with a grand vision – he believes that nearly every Fortune 500 company using air freight in Asia will eventually will require the company’s high-speed container transportation.
“Our recent partnerships mark an important step in realizing our vision of launching the world’s first high-speed, zero-emission freight service using using hydrofoil container ships. From here, we’re particularly focused on getting our first ship ready to ship for our partners to launch in the first quarter of 2025,” said Kearney. “In addition to these launch partners, we are also in advanced discussions with many other large corporations including computer manufacturers, medical device suppliers, consumer electronics and automotive OEMs. . This really demonstrates the wide range of problems that ARGO has been solving around the world. “
The first ship will be put into service in Asia in 2025 and has a total tonnage of 200 tons. It will operate at a cruising speed of 40 knots, enabled by the company’s proprietary hydrofoil technology. Exact routes for the service will be selected with their deployment partners in the coming months, but key port cities under consideration include Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and several cities. Southeast Asian city.
