Electric Marine Propulsion's E motion hybrid system will be the centerpiece of a €2.2 million ($3 million) European Union r&d effort to develop an "optimized and fully integrated" marine hybrid-electric drive that the project's proposers call "a necessary first step towards the complete replacement of the internal combustion engine."
Expected to begin in Spring 2009, the three-year Hybrid Marine (HYMAR) project will produce a long list of technological refinements to improve the efficiency of hybrid-electric propulsion for commercial and recreational vessels up to 24 meters.
"This is a major step forward in the evolution of our company," says Dave Tether, CEO of Electric Marine Propulsion (EMP). "Now we have the financial and research support we need to expand into larger vessels and important new markets."
EU partners
European partners in the HYMAR project are Bosch Engineering - Germany, Malo Yachts - Sweden, Steyr Motors - Austria, Mastervolt - The Netherlands, Bruntons Propellers - UK, Enersys - UK and INSEAN (L'Istituto nazionale per studi ed esperienze di architettura navale) - Italy.
EMP will participate through a newly established European firm, E motion Special Projects (ESP), headquartered in Plymouth, UK, with research facilities in Bordeaux, France, near CNB-Lagoon.
HYMAR is sponsored by the EU Marine Industries Group (EURMIG), a committee of the International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA).
General goals of the project include 1) matching motor peak efficiency more closely with propeller power absorption, 2) automatically regulating electricity from all inputs into the battery bank and out to the loads that need it and 3) coordinating generator electrical output with battery charge acceptance, house loads and propulsion power requirements.
To reach these goals, the project will develop a range of new products including dynamically shifting motor and generator controllers, an energy management module, a torque-adapted self-pitching propeller, a rim-drive motor-propulsor and nozzle, a design for a keel-mounted hybrid drive that builders can purchase as a bolt-on unit and an advanced TPPL (thin-plate, pure-lead) battery designed specifically for hybrid propulsion.
HYMAR also will test other advanced batteries as well as suitable biofuels and fuel cells with the hybrid platform if they become available at realistic prices.
Calder brainchild
HYMAR is the brainchild of Nigel Calder, boating journalist and marine electrical systems expert. He wrote the funding proposal with assistance from Ken Wittamore of EURMIG.
Calder has written extensively - and often critically - about hybrid and diesel-electric propulsion. He and Tether for years have debated the technology's pros and cons at boat shows and industry conferences. But last year, Calder bought a 16 kw E motion Hybrids system for a Malo 46 to do his own research.
"I believe we are on the cusp of a series of systems revolutions that will result in more changes to our boat systems than anything we have seen in the 25 years that I have been tracking these things," Calder wrote in his blog on the Malo web site. "I decided I should experience them first hand as soon as possible."
Besides E motion hybrid drive, Calder also decided to test a distributed power system, a "plug and play" navigational network, LED lighting, laminated load path "string" sails and a Rocna anchor. He felt it made no sense to retrofit all these systems into his own nearly new Malo. So he sold it after only a year's use and started over with the 46 foot Nada, which Malo agreed to build for the project.
Initially, Calder configured his system as a parallel diesel electric, with the E motion 16 kw motor belted to a conventional inboard prop shaft turned by a 75 hp Volvo diesel propulsion engine. The electric motor was powered directly by a diesel generator, without the intervening battery bank that is standard in the E motion system.
Over the past year, he's been collecting baseline fuel consumption data on his own to compare the efficiency of the parallel diesel electric to that of the standard diesel propulsion engine. He concluded (as Tether has always maintained) that without a battery bank "it is almost impossible to make the system more efficient from a propulsion point of view than the conventional inboard diesel."
Serial hybrid for HYMAR
For the HYMAR project, he's removing the diesel propulsion engine and will operate the E motion system in our standard serial hybrid configuration. The electric motor is connected directly to the prop shaft and powered by a 144 VDC battery pack backed up by a DC diesel generator. The generator in this case is a 22 kw Polar Power DC unit. The prop shaft will be instrumented with thrust and torque meters.
The E motion serial hybrid configuration allows battery-only operation without running the generator and accepts alternative energy inputs as well, most notably, regeneration under sail, but also solar photoelectricity and conventional dockside battery charging. As Calder emphasized in his blog: "Integration of alternative energy sources is the key to making hybrid technology viable in boats."
System testing in Nada will be conducted in the protected waters of Kungsviken (Bay of Kings), which borders the Malo factory on the inshore island of Orust north of Göteborg, Sweden. Motor and propeller tank testing will take place outside Rome at INSEAN, which has a 470 meter long towing tank and cavitation tunnel.
The E motion 16 kw motor later will be upgraded to a larger size, such as the 32 kw motor now being bench-tested by BluWav Systems, or one from another manufacturer.
Battery tests
The batteries in Nada are Odyssey TPPL AGMs made by Enersys. Calder considers TPPL a major advance in battery technology because of its "astonishing" ability to accept charge at several times the rate of conventional batteries [See his article "Breakthrough" in the February/March 2008 Professional Boatbuilder.]
Another potential battery test candidate is lead-infiltrated ceramic, which may become available this year. The project also may test batteries with other chemistries, such as nickel-metal-hydride or lithium, but only if their cost comes down. Both are too expensive at present.
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Firms in seven countries will join together in the HYMAR Project. |
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Proposed HYMAR project outcomes
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- Fully integrated marine hybrid drive system for commercial and recreational craft up to 24m
- Zero emissions to air and zero discernible noise and vibration in harbour
- An increase of 50% in the lifetime kilowatt-hour performance of lead-acid batteries in marine hybrid applications
- Full compliance with European Commission Directive 2003/10/EC (Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2007)
- Propeller efficiency increased by 5% at full load and >15% at "off design point" operation
- Reduction of overall fuel consumption by 20%, tending to >90% on long distance sailing boats
- CO2 reduction of 20% in all "off design point" applications such as fishing boats, pilot boats and small commercial ferries
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| (L-R) Tether, Calder and inverter supplier Dick Dean of Sensata discuss hybrid drive. |
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| Malo 's 46-footer (stock photo) |
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New technologies to be developed
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- Energy Management Module monitoring all elements of the system and providing efficient and holistic control
- Generic design tool to specify the components required to produce an optimum hybrid drive system for a specific vessel
- Torque-adapted, self-pitching propeller
- Design tool for self-pitching propellers
- New generation of TPPL batteries with optimised geometry and electrochemistry for hybrid applications
- Dynamic permanent magnet DC (PMDC) motor controller
- Dynamic PMDC generator controller
- Proof of concept rim drive propeller based on a PMDC motor and self-pitching propeller
- Design specification for large PMDC drive motors
- Design specification for PMDC generators
- Outline design for a keel-mounted hybrid drive unit
- Contributions to NMEA 2000 standards
- Contributions to the development of a harmonised ISO safety standard for electric propulsion systems above 50 VDC
- Universal AC input to 144 VDC battery charger
- Efficient DC to DC converter 144v to 12 volts and 24 volts
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| Kungsivken on Orust Island |
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| INSEAN's research faciilty south of Rome |
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