Project: Motodrivetrain – Zero-Carbon Marine Propulsion for Small Ships
Featured: Advanced Electric Propulsion for Marine vessels
Funding: Innovate UK (Sustainable Innovation Fund – round 2)
Collaborators:
DuoDrive Ltd
Associated British Ports (ABP)
Queen Mary University of London
iNetic
Deep Blue Design Ltd
8020 Engineering
Futuresight Technologies Ltd
To address environmental concerns, decarbonisation is urgently needed for the transport sector including maritime transportation. Electrification of smaller marine drives is imminent (the currently used marine diesel engines are heavily polluting) and that can potentially eliminate emissions, but the powertrain needs to overcome the challenges caused by transient conditions. The smaller vessels have to increase the electric drive propulsion efficiency allowing for rapid commercialisation, improving mission endurance (battery life). Using patented direct torque & thrust measurement technique and adding predictive control/optimisation approaches to remove the transients will dramatically increase the electric drive propulsion efficiency in conventional as well as autonomous surface vessels. This also significantly improve battery life and as a result, reducing domestic emissions.
Project: Marine Small-ship Zero-carbon H2 Demonstrator with Innovative Port manoeuvring
Funding: Innovate UK (Hydrogen Transport Hub: demonstration)
Collaborators:
DuoDrive Limited
TRL Limited
Queen Mary University of London
Durham University (Durham Energy Institute)
Octopus Hydrogen
This project brings together in one step all the necessary components to demonstrate “the Future of Marine Transport”. Making use of a 10m workboat ‘demonstrator’ which still has life to beyond 2035 can be realised by retrofitting high efficiency electric drivetrains powered by Hydrogen fuelled power generators and high-pressure fuel storage in place of its twin 250HP diesels. This combination is without the weight & range limitations of batteries, is simple and has the potential to have similar bunkering costs to diesel even immediately before the wider availability of “green H2” decreases that cost over the next decade.
As part of the HTH demonstration a Hydrogen Refuelling Station will also be deployed by Octopus Hydrogen who are keenly backing the project implementation.
Novel improvements to the retrofittable Contra-rotating Propulsion along with innovative machine learning-based port manoeuvring FarSight(tm) will be examined using CFD analysis to optimise the patented features of the Motodrivetrain(r) and then tested during the demonstration period.
Project: TorqueSight – Wireless Monitoring of Torque and Thrust using Torque Flange
Funding: Transport Technology Research and Innovation Grant (T-TRIG 2020)
Collaborators:
DuoDrive Ltd
FutureSightTechnologies Ltd
Deep Blue Design Ltd
8020 Engineering
JHAC Solutions Ltd
The project developed a wireless torque and force monitoring device for small marine vessels. The device electronics composed of different components including strain gauges, Antenna unit, and Power generation module. Analogue to Digital (A/D) conversion unit is designed for the strain gauge readings and control, which includes strain gauge op-amp in ADC, and main MCU electronics. We developed a robust high speed (low bandwidth) data communication protocol specific to shipping and Engine Control Unit (ECU) integration. The protocol stack is appropriate to the transmission modules chosen, and represents a core element of the MCU. A variable data rate communication system is considered to significantly reduce power consumption.