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Batteries: key for North America's green shipping transition
Ferry companies are investing in batteries, electric and hybrid propulsion to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the US and Canada
Glosten principal marine engineer Sean Caughlan said in a video interview there will be more projects involving electric ferry construction and charging stations in Washington State, California and along the East Coast in the future.
There are also several zero-emissions workboat projects in the US, he said at Riviera Maritime Media’s Maritime Hybrid, Electric & Hydrogen Fuel Cells Conference 2023 in Bergen, Norway.
“There are lots of smaller projects involving the move towards batteries and hybrid electric in the transport sector,” said Mr Caughlan.
Washington State has announced plans to convert 26 vessels to battery-electric propulsion. “The first of three flagship vessels are in the shipyard being converted with 6-MWh batteries and will operate as hybrid before the shore infrastructure is in place,” said Mr Caughlan.
This will take around three years to put in place, with potentially 16 terminals with shore power, enabling more passenger ships to recharge onboard batteries.
“There will then be a newbuild programme of six vessels and the tender comes out early in 2024,” he added.
Batteries have been installed on other smaller passenger vessels and Glosten has designs for battery-powered passenger and vehicle ferries, a low-emissions electric harbour tug and an offshore line-handling vessel.
“There are several zero-emissions projects around the US involving tugs and workboats, and some alternative fuel projects,” said Mr Caughlan.
Glosten worked with ABB to design a harbour tug operating with hybrid propulsion, which could operate on methanol fuel.
It has also developed naval architecture for an offshore 37-m line-haul tug which could be employed to tow ships and deck barges of up to 20,000 dwt across oceans and for moderate-duty anchor handling and salvage operations.
This CT-120 design has a beam of 12 m, a depth of 7 m and power of 5,070 kW for bollard pull up to 95 tonnes.
Hybrid and electric power solutions will be presented and debated at Riviera Maritime Media’s Maritime Decarbonisation Conference, Asia – to be held 3-4 April 2024 in Singapore. Use this link to get more information and register your interest
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