Diesel hybrid drive available for smaller boats

The diesel hybrid drive depends on a combination of diesel motors and innovative electrical drive components to deliver an advanced technology which can now be made available to smaller craft including workboats. Small ships thus benefit from the advantages of a diesel-electric hybrid drive, including improved range and dependability, lower maintenance costs and emissions, low noise operation and simple operation.

Siship EcoProp closes the gap between larger ships for which diesel-electric propulsion is a well established standard and smaller vessels that have traditionally been driven with conventional mechanical motors in the power range from 100 kW to 800 kW. Siship EcoProp makes all advantages of diesel-electric drives available for smaller commercial ships.

A thermal combustion motor performs at its best efficiency when operated as close as possible to the design point. When a motor is operated at low or excessive load levels, the result is very high emissions and a shortened service life. This sort of inefficient operation also negatively impacts maintenance costs. By applying a hybrid system, generating sets run optimally. This is achieved by adapting the speed of the diesel motors to the power requirements.

Thanks to an intelligent control solution the hybrid drive management system runs only as many generating sets as required, and always close to the diesel engines’ optimum efficiency. At the same time, the electrical propulsion drive solutions enable the optimum power generation and distribution for different ship speeds. For example, by operating a diesel engine at its optimum efficiency, independent of the required propeller shaft speed, the drive system efficiency is improved and substantial energy and fuel savings can be realized. As a result, there is significant potential to increase energy efficiency, especially for vessels with frequently changing operating modes and speeds. Plug-and-play solutions based on standardized products considerably simplify installation.