Project description
Sustainable long-haul passenger ships
Maritime transport, including long-haul passenger ships, emits greenhouse gases and pollutants. To reduce these emissions and comply with the International Maritime Organisation's targets for 2030 and beyond, the EU-funded Nautilus project will develop an integrated marine energy system that will use liquefied natural gas. The project will build a pilot technology that will gradually replace the internal combustion engine-based generators with a solid oxide fuel cell-battery hybrid genset. What is more, Nautilus will work on a digital design and a demonstrator of an on-board energy system for vessels transporting 1 000 and more than 5 000 passengers, which will be evaluated according to the marine safety regulations.
Objective
Maritime transport is among the leading sources of greenhouse gases and pollutants which are estimated to cause 50,000 premature annual deaths and €58 billion annual cost to the society in the EU. With the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations coming in force, marine transport needs new energy solutions for emissions reduction. Passenger ships are the most affected as they have growing pressure from their customers and habitants near ports for a clean environment. To address these challenges, this project aims at developing, evaluating and validating a highly efficient and dynamic integrated marine energy system fuelled by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for long-haul passenger ships. This energy system, responsible to cater for all heat & power needs of a vessel, consists of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)-battery hybrid genset with coupling with the existing Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) based generators and gradually replacing these ICEs. The project will develop and deliver a complete process design and digital demonstrator of a fully integrated on-board energy system of a size between 5 and 60 MW for two types of cruise ships: 1000 and 5000+ passenger vessels. A physical proof-of-concept (PoC 30 kWe SOFC+battery) as well as a modularized functional demonstrator (60 kWe SOFC+battery) of the hybrid genset will be developed and operated to validate the design and operation strategies. The digital design and the physical demonstrator will be evaluated against the marine safety regulations. The project brings in a consortium of key actors in maritime passenger transport including ship operators, ship builders, marine engine builder, marine regulatory company, and technology developers supported by research organizations from across the Europe. Together they target to validate this integrated energy system to comply with the IMO targets of 2030 and beyond. Besides, regulatory framework, emission analysis, lifecycle assessment and feasibility of fuel flexibility are addressed.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energyhybrid energy
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfossil energynatural gas
- social sciencessocial geographytransport
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energyhydroelectricitymarine energy
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsfuel cells
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
51147 Koln
Germany