With 48 meters in length, 11.5 meters in width, and a capacity for up to 20 people, the floating laboratory from Germany will test hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, batteries, drones, and autonomous systems.

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 23/05/2026 at 19:13

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MODULARIS Platform, from the German Aerospace Center, will be used to test hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, batteries, automation, and drones on trips of up to seven days, creating a real development environment for future ship technologies.

Germany has taken a new step to test low-emission ships with MODULARIS, DLR’s floating laboratory whose keel was launched in Flensburg, with 48 meters in length, 11.5 meters in width, and a focus on hydrogen.

Ships will have tests in real conditions

The maritime platform will be used to integrate, evaluate, and prepare future technologies in an operational environment. The goal is to accelerate the development of energy, navigation, and communication systems before certification.

The German Aerospace Center reported that MODULARIS will bring together research on climate-compatible propulsion, autonomous technologies, and applications aimed at safety and defense. The proposal involves government, industry, companies, and startups.

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Hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia enter the center of research

The ship will have an experimental engine room to test alternative fuels, including methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen. Fuel cells, batteries, sensors, and automation systems will also be evaluated.

The structure will feature redundant safety and control systems, allowing experiments with equipment not yet certified. This configuration should enhance test safety and reduce steps between laboratory, operation, and certification.

A digital twin, a virtual model of the vessel, will be used for simulations and analyses. The tool will serve to prepare sea trials and complement the development done on board.

Platform will support drones and infrastructure in Kiel

MODULARIS will support unmanned systems, such as drones. The test trips are mainly planned for the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and Mediterranean, with missions of up to seven days.

DLR is expanding its structure in Kiel, at the MaK Campus, with offices, research, and laboratories with direct access to the water. The institution states that the complex reinforces Schleswig-Holstein as a German innovation center.

The keel ceremony included a coin under the first prefabricated steel module, then positioned with millimeter precision.

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With 48 meters in length, 11.5 meters in width, and a capacity for up to 20 people, the floating laboratory from Germany will test hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, batteries, drones, and autonomous systems.

MODULARIS Platform, from the German Aerospace Center, will be used to test hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, batteries, automation, and drones on trips of up to seven days, creating a real development environment for future ship technologies.

Ships will have tests in real conditions

Hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia enter the center of research

Platform will support drones and infrastructure in Kiel

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With 48 meters in length, 11.5 meters in width, and a capacity for up to 20 people, the floating laboratory from Germany will test hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, batteries, drones, and autonomous systems.

MODULARIS Platform, from the German Aerospace Center, will be used to test hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, batteries, automation, and drones on trips of up to seven days, creating a real development environment for future ship technologies.

Ships will have tests in real conditions

Hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia enter the center of research

Platform will support drones and infrastructure in Kiel

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

Using high-resolution satellite images, archaeologists rediscovered the Egyptian city of Imet, buried for centuries in the Nile Delta, revealing rare multi-story houses, granaries, and a sacred road linked to the cobra goddess Wadjet, from about 2,400 years ago.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

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The 2014 World Cup left a million-dollar legacy in Itaquera: the Corinthians stadium more than doubled the price per square meter, attracted developers, led to thousands of residential units, and changed the neighborhood, but mobility barriers still hinder the area around the arena.

The world has bet on green hydrogen as the fuel of the future, but now faces the side effect: producing 1 kilogram requires about 9 liters of ultrapure water, and the largest projects on the planet are precisely in the driest regions of the Earth, where water is already scarce for people.

Soviet villagers found a “human figure” with open eyes next to a capsule fallen in the snow and thought they had found a dead cosmonaut, until they discovered it was Ivan Ivanovich, the mannequin that tested the spacecraft before Gagarin became the first man in space.