A floating test platform that uses sea water, air and wind to produce clean hydrogen has begun operations off Germany's North Sea coast. As part of the H₂Mare hydrogen lead project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, the system will exploit the extra wind power available at sea to turn a turbine to produce electricity onboard.

The electricity generated powers a pair of proton-exchange-membrane electrolyzers that split the surrounding seawater into its constituent components of oxygen and hydrogen. The result is the production of hydrogen without the high economic and environmental costs associated with other methods. The test platform captures the heat generated from the electrolyzers to power an on-board desalinization plant, enabling researchers to compare the efficiency of using fresh versus salt water in the hydrogen generation scheme.

The system will also exploit the hydrogen it produces to operate an onboard Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process in which it will be combined with carbon monoxide pulled out of the air to produce a range of synthetic fuels including diesel and gasoline. Experiments are underway to research the green creation of additional fuels such as methanol, ammonia and liquid methane.