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Tugs: hydrogen fuel soon to be a reality
Hydrogen is seen as a future fuel for harbour and coastal tugboats, with applications coming in Europe and Singapore
Delegates at Riviera Maritime Media’s annual Maritime Hybrid, Electric & Hydrogen Fuel Cells Conference in Bergen, Norway, heard from experts on tug design on the future architecture for zero-emissions vessels.
Navtek Naval Technologies’ advanced engineering, research and development manager, Mustafa Sargin introduced the company’s Hydrotug60 design for a 28.5-m vessel with 60 tonnes of bollard pull. This vessel is on the drawing board and could be under construction at Navtek’s shipyard in Turkey in 2023.
“We have been working on the Hydrotug project for the past three years,” said Mr Sargin. “We are aiming to use metal hydrides for hydrogen storage and have almost finished the concept design and during 2023, we will start construction.”
This design is for an electric-hybrid, hydrogen-powered tugboat with a beam of around 12 m, depth of 5 m and maximum speed of 12 knots. Its propulsion would include two 2,000-kW electric motors, two 500-kW hydrogen-powered fuel cells, two 1,085-kW, 3C/3C Corvus Orca batteries and two azimuth thrusters.
“It will also have a FiFi1 fire-fighting system, which is a high energy consumer,” said Mr Sargin. “We are working with GKN on hydrogen storage in four containers, working with Nedstack on the fuel cells and Corvus on the batteries.”
Navtek has previously designed all-electric Zeetug vessels, of which the first with 30 tonnes of bollard pull is already operating. It is about to launch the first Zeetug45 design vessel with 45 tonnes of bollard pull.
In Singapore, Sembcorp Marine has designed HyForce, a hydrogen-powered harbour tug.
Sembcorp Marine senior engineer and PhD candidate at Nanyang Technological University, Nirmal Vineeth Menon, said this is a pilot project to assess the feasibility of the design.
The 20-m hybrid-electric tug will have batteries, fuel cells and motor-generators, with 45 tonnes of bollard pull, speed of 12 knots and two 1-MW engines or 10 200-kW PEM fuel cells. Mr Menon completed economic and technical assessments, including well-to-wake emissions and calculating return on investment using different capital and operational cost scenarios. In one scenario, there was a payback in 15 years.
LMG Marin has designed another tug to use LNG for fuel, with batteries on board for operations in Singapore. Mr Menon said this tug, with 65 tonnes of bollard pull and Rolls-Royce mtu engines, is being commissioned in Singapore and is scheduled to undertake sea trials either this year or early 2023.
In the USA, Maritime Partners has its first methanol-fuelled towboat under construction, scheduled for completion by end-2023. It is part of e1 Marine, along with Ardmore Shipping and Element 1 Corp, developing and implementing the concept of a zero-emissions pusher vessel for transporting cargo along US inland waterways.
E1 Marine managing director Robert Schluter said Hydrogen One will be on the water in Q4 2023. Methanol will be stored with water on board for increased energy density and lower storage requirements. This fuel is run through a reformer to extract the hydrogen and then through fuel cells, which generate charge to drive electric motors, which through switchgear, then drives the vessel’s L-drive thrusters.
American Commercial Barge Line will operate this world-first methanol-fuelled towboat, Hydrogen One, which Maritime Partners helped to develop with naval architects at Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design. It is being built at Intracoastal Iron Works in Bourg, Louisiana, with technology from e1 Marine and ABB.
Rix Industries will manufacture Hydrogen One’s M18 reformers and PowerCell Sweden will supply the PowerCellution marine system 200-kW fuel cells. This towboat will also be equipped with batteries, providing additional power when needed.
Riviera Maritime Media’s TUGTECHNOLOGY returns 23-24 May 2023 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Use this link for further information and to register your interest
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