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Rising to the challenge, Babcock International’s R&D department has been looking at the potential for on-board battery electric systems to improve efficiency and minimise fuel consumption on vessels.
“There is huge market potential here,” says Chris Watts, principal electrical engineer at Babcock. “Battery systems are becoming more prevalent across shipping in general, so we have to be aware of how to manage these systems, so that we can service and integrate them in the future.”
After a funding call from Innovate UK on the topic, Chris approached the WMG at the University of Warwick to provide expertise in battery characterisation, modelling and control. Joined by Potenza Technology, the consortium successfully secured funding for the Agile Power Management Systems for Marine Vessels (APMS) project. The two-year project aimed to develop an intelligent marine power management prototype system, which could balance multiple power sources and energy storage to meet the varying power demands of a marine vessel.
From automotive to marine
Supported by funding from the WMG Centre High Value Manufacturing Catapult, battery systems and control experts analysed real-world data from Babcock’s marine business to identify a suitable candidate for the prototype – a platform support vessel with dynamic positioning. Then, the research team developed algorithms to enable intelligent power management software, which was implemented onto hardware supplied by Potenza.
“These hybrid vessels with diesel engines lend themselves very well to this kind of power management system,” said Watts. “It allows us to do something called peak shaving, where you store energy in your batteries and – when peak power is required – you release that energy, reducing demand on the diesel engines and lowering emissions. From an environmental point of view, we’re saving fuel and reducing emissions – from a commercial point of view, it lowers the cost for the operator significantly.”
An example lay-out inside a marine vessel (Credit: Typhoon HiL)
Using the new Hardware in the Loop (HiL) facility at WMG, the team developed bespoke mathematical models to simulate the battery pack’s performance under different conditions.
“It was a really challenging and interesting problem – transferring best practice from the automotive sector to radically new marine problems,” said Professor James Marco, professor of systems modelling and simulation at WMG. “We had to understand how to optimise the management of the battery system to take account of very different load-profiles and use cases.”
A sea of opportunities
By implementing the agile power management system, the team were able to demonstrate significant fuel savings of up to 6% – which could equate to millions of pounds in fuel savings. Three key cell technologies were characterised and data was provided to underpin future research and development activities.
One of the most important outcomes was forging relationships that would allow the team to pursue the burgeoning technology, said Watts. Babcock continues to work with WMG, sponsoring a PhD studentship to progress the development of the models and power management algorithm to achieve a 10% fuel reduction.
There has already been interest from industry, as well as appetite within other areas of Babcock – such as defence – to look at batteries for weapons systems, lasers and more.
“The opportunities are potentially huge,” said Watts. “It’s early days, but we’ve laid the foundations for where this could go in the future. We have demonstrated to our customers that we are on board with this kind of thing, that we have capability in it and that we’ve also built the right partnerships to take it forward.”
To learn more about the Energy Characterisation, Modelling and Control research team click here.
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