A new laboratory ship for research into “navigation of tomorrow”.
On May 23, 2026, in a shipyard in Flensburg, near the Danish border, the DLR (Germany’s research center for aeronautics and astronautics) laid the keel of a ship like no other: the MODULARIS!
It is a laboratory ship designed to test at real sea technologies that will impact the navigation of tomorrow: hydrogen, ammonia, methanol engines, fuel cells, giant batteries, autonomous navigation, on-board drones. A maritime toolbox, in short, but one that floats and takes to the sea.
Presented as “unique in the world” by its president Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, the project is also a political signal: Europe does not want to leave Japan, Korea and China alone in the field of maritime decarbonization.
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Germany launches MODULARIS, a floating laboratory to reinvent maritime propulsion
Why a floating laboratory?
Testing a hydrogen engine in a test room is one thing. Running it at 8°C in the North Sea, with salt everywhere, under the swell, for a week, is another. The big wall between R&D and marketing in the maritime industry is certification. As long as a technology has not been tested in real conditions before a classification society (DNV, Lloyd’s Register, Bureau Veritas, ClassNK), it remains on the shelf. It is exactly this barrier that MODULARIS wants to break down.
From left to right: Manuel Ortuño, Lloyd’s Register; Frank Mallon, general manager of the FSG shipyard; Thorsten Rönner, Managing Director of Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven; Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, president of the board of directors of DLR; Sören Ehlers, Director of the DLR Institute for Maritime Technologies and Propulsion Systems; Meike Jipp, member of the board of directors of the Energy and Transport division of the DLR; Karsten Lemmer, DLR board member responsible for innovation, transfer and research infrastructure.
Crédit : DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
The ship will have a modular structure and will have an experimental engine room, where engineers can plug and unplug different propulsion systems, like changing a printer cartridge. Fully redundant safety and control systems, allowing testing of not yet certified equipment without putting the crew at risk. To go faster, a digital twin of the ship is constantly rotating, simulating on land what is happening at sea.
The hoped-for result is a spectacular shortening of the time between the release of a prototype and its entry into the market. Today, getting an innovative marine engine approved takes five to ten years. With MODULARIS, the DLR is aiming for a quarter, a third of this time.
This “crane of the seas” has just achieved the feat of planting a 1,670-ton pile which will call for many others on the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm.
The wall of 2050
The IMO (International Maritime Organization) has set a net-zero 2050 target for global maritime transport, which today accounts for around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this, the agency imposed a “Well-to-Wake” approach, meaning that emissions must be counted not at the moment the fuel burns, but over its entire life cycle, from production to combustion.
Direct consequence: any fuel produced with a lot of carbon is automatically eliminated, even if it burns cleanly.
The European Union has added its layer. Since January 1, 2025, FuelEU Maritime has imposed a gradual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from fuel used at sea: 2% in 2025, 6% in 2030, up to 80% in 2050. Since the same date, the fuel exchange system EU emission allowances (EU ETS) cover offshore and freight vessels of more than 400 tonnes operating in the European zone, the maritime space is therefore closely monitored!
No wonder ship orders have shifted. According to Clarksons Research, in 2024 more than half of new global orders are for alternative fuel ships. Orders for conventional fuel oil ships have almost collapsed. MODULARIS arrives precisely at the moment when the industry is changing its footing.
We talk to you about it regularly at Media24.fr and you can find the most recent ones in the list below:
| Date | Ship / Subject | Fuel | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 9, 2026 | Ning Yuan Dian Kun (Chinese) | Electric | The largest fully electric container ship in the world, 127.8 meters and 20,000 kWh of batteries, in service on the Ningbo-Jiaxing line. |
| 31 mars 2026 | 6UEC35LSGH engine (Japan) | Hydrogen | Japan unveils the first 2-stroke engine capable of powering a 17,500-ton cargo ship with a majority of hydrogen, by J-ENG and Kawasaki. |
| 3 sept. 2025 | 7UEC50LSJA-HPSCR engine (Japan) | Ammonia | World premiere at the J-ENG Akashi factory with this 7-cylinder monster that can run on ammonia alone, with -90% GHG emissions. |
| June 29, 2025 | Hydrogen by electrolysis (China) | Hydrogen | China unveils an innovation that makes it possible to produce hydrogen from tap water, paving the way for massive production for ships and industry. |
| 15 Feb. 2025 | Yara Clean Ammonia × NYK (Norway/Japan) | Ammonia | First global time charter contract for a 40,000 m³ ammonia-powered gas carrier, scheduled for November 2026. |
| 13 Feb. 2025 | Plus grand catamaran à hydrogène (Suède) | Hydrogen | Sweden sets a new world record in maritime transport with the world’s largest hydrogen catamaran. |
| 9 Feb. 2025 | eCSOV Bibby Marine (UK) | Electric (25 MWh batteries) | First fully electric eCSOV vessel in the world, Corvus Energy Blue Whale LFP 25 MWh battery, delivery 2027 by the Spanish shipyard Armon. |
| Jan 24, 2025 | 2 L engine Hyundai/Kia/KIMM (South Korea) | Ammonia | First 2-liter engine running on 100% ammonia, applicable to vehicles, ships and planes, developed by KIMM, Hyundai and Kia. |
| Jan 23, 2025 | Hydrogen-electric ship (Lithuania) | Hydrogen + Electric | Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million inhabitants, is making a mark by joining the elite ranks with a ship powered by hydrogen and electricity. |
| 26 déc. 2024 | Dong Fang Qing Gang (Chine) | Hydrogène (piles à combustible) | First hydrogen container barge in the world, 64.5 meters, 1,450 tonnes, 550 kg of H₂ and 2 Sinosynergy batteries of 240 kW, up to -700 tonnes of CO₂/year. |
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What MODULARIS brings different
The DLR publicly invited government agencies, industry, and especially SMEs and startups to come and bring their own prototypes to test them with it.
MODULARIS thus claims a vocation of European common good, accessible to any actor capable of aligning a credible prototype.
The DLR is also taking advantage of the operation to expand its onshore facilities. On the MaK Campus in Kiel, capital of Schleswig-Holstein, new offices and laboratories with direct access to water are being built. The region has clearly decided to become the German hub of maritime innovation, as Brest is trying to be for France or Trondheim for Norway.
The bet of time
The ship is currently only at the keel laying stage. The manufacturer, Lloyd Werft, estimates that the first tests will take place for MODULARIS in 2027 or 2028.
Once the hull is completed at the FSG shipyard in Flensburg, the ship is planned to be transferred to the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven in autumn 2026. It will be fitted out and completed there in 2027.
Crédit : DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
If MODULARIS delivers what it promises (a real shortening of certification deadlines), it can give the European marine engine industry a head start that it has lost over the past twenty years to Korean and Chinese shipyards.
Sources :
- Maritime Journal, A floating laboratory onboard a research vessel (February 2025) https://www.maritimejournal.com/vessels/a-floating-laboratory-onboard-a-research-vessel/1499797.article
Announcement of the award of the construction contract to the Lloyd Werft shipyard and initial presentation of the DLR project. - DLR (German Aerospace Center), DLR celebrates keel laying of the MODULARIS seagoing technology platform (date non précisée)
https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2026/dlr-celebrates-keel-laying-of-the-modularis-seagoing-technology-platform
Press release announcing the laying of the keel of the MODULARIS maritime technological platform, an experimental vessel intended to test autonomous and modular naval technologies.
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