Students Enter Monaco Energy Boat Challenge with e-Methanol-Powered Boat

SURGE Methanol Foiling Team Twente, 22 students mainly from the University of Twente, the Netherlands, entered a boat powered by electro-methanol (e-methanol) into the 13^th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, officially debuting the alternative fuel in the show. The Challenge took place from 8-11 July 2026 at the Yacht Club de Monaco, and included 54 teams and four classes.

Eclipse is a e-methanol hydrofoil powered by a 5kW reformed-methanol fuel cell. Guusje Groot Koerkamp, a 21-year-old Technical Medicine student, explained: “We’re here at the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge as the first student team ever to build a foiling boat powered by green methanol. Our focus is on innovation and showing how sustainability can transform the maritime sector. The Challenge is the ideal platform to showcase these ideas and keep pushing innovation forward.”

Teammate Twan Kolkman, a 21-year-old Chemical Engineering student at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands, followed: “The foils lift the boat above the water, reducing drag, increasing speed and lowering the energy needed to maintain it. Our e-methanol fuel cell converts methanol into electricity to power the boat.”

Jérémie Lagarrigue, President of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge International Jury, stated: “One of the main innovations we discovered this year on the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge [is] e-methanol used on board the student boat. The e-methanol [is] hydrogen combined with CO₂. So, CO₂ [is captured] from the air, mixed with hydrogen and creates e-methanol. And after, the kids on board, they are transforming this e-methanol into hydrogen [again], and they are using it as hydrogen with a fuel cell, meaning that they have three times more capacity of energy with zero emission, zero microparticles [and] zero noise.”