Ships
The marine industry is facing tighter environmental regulations that directly influence its business. Emissions of NOX, SOX and CO2 must be reduced in order to comply with the existing and future international regulations (MARPOL ...).
The ship building industry must adapt by implementing new ship design concepts, new technologies that can bring significant gains in efficiency either to prime movers or auxiliary systems including managing the hotel load.
The growing adoption of electrical propulsion architecture (full-electric or hybrid-electric) for new ships remains a very strong alternative to conventional mechanical propulsion.
Applications
Saft is developing complete battery systems for the following ship categories:
- Sea-going vessels (ferries, cargo ships, offshore vessels, workboats, fishing vessels,
- Inland waterways (passenger ferries, Harbour tugs and pushers, river-sea shuttles …)
- Leisure vessels (mega-yachts, yachts …)
Battery functions
The use of batteries on board ships can be dedicated to:
- Hybrid-electric and/or full-electric propulsion
- Auxiliary systems / hotel load
- Emergency back-up
In case of propulsion, the batteries are primarily used to:
- Maintain idle or station-keeping positions while avoiding diesel engine running at non optimal load
- Entry and exit of the harbour, restricted areas in a zero-emission mode (battery only)
- Provide additional power to prime movers and meet peak power demands
An auxiliary system on board ships includes equipment dedicated to:
- Propulsion, manoeuvring and motion control (Thrusters, stabilizers, energy recovery systems …)
- Ship service (Lighting systems, ballast pumps, HVAC …)
- Cargo / duty service (pumps, winches, actuators …)
For some auxiliary systems, batteries provide the necessary power for its functions and avoid the need for the ship designer to install additional power capability to operate this equipment.
Batteries are also used in UPS and back-up power systems to support computer systems, communications systems, process control systems and emergency lighting. In addition, batteries are also used to start auxiliary generator sets and main engines.
Battery systems solutions
Saft offers multiple battery solutions that meet a wide range of functions (propulsion, auxiliary systems and hotel load) on board ships.
Nickel technologies:
- STH and STM Ni-Cd, NHE Ni-MH batteries for small electric propulsion applications (river boats, shuttles, …).
- SPH Ni-Cd: ideally suitable for UPS & Back-up power:
Lithium technologies
Saft develops dedicated rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery systems to address the growing requirements for ships that adopt full-electric and hybrid-electric propulsion architecture as well as for auxiliary systems.
These applications can be equipped, depending on operating mission profiles with different types of Li-ion cells ( Large VLE, VLM and VLP ) and assembled into complete battery systems custom-designed to meet the specific power/energy characteristics of each application.