Investigation of the efficiency of small electric ship propulsion and battery energy control systems

Abstract

With the development of the shipping sector, the amount of fuel consumption in the maritime sector has increased. It leads to an increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping. When the emission rates of the transportation sectors have been examined, it became clear, that the maritime sector has low value compared to other transportation ways, but it still reaches approx. 2.5% of the global value. As the International Maritime Organization (IMO) limits GHG emissions from ships, the idea of the green ship has become a globally important issue. Renewable energy sources are used for the implementation of green ship idea. One of these is to use electrical ships. The advantages of all-electric or hybrid driven boats are the reductions in pollution, noise, vibration, and potentially, cost. This paper presents the case analysis of a small scale ship energy consumption and power supply energy estimation. An experiment was carried out to estimate real battery capacity and the charging/discharging capabilities of the propulsion created system.