Marine battery innovation
Plan B Energy Storage (PBES), a Norwegian provider of battery energy solutions for the marine market, has announced at the Norshipping event, what it calls ‘a revolutionary new solution for enhancing the lifecycle benefits of marine battery systems’.
‘CellSwap’ uses a new method of retrofitting battery systems by replacing battery cells while leaving the rest of the installation intact. The process, called ‘re-coring’, could save up to 60 per cent of the costs of installing a new battery after a five year cycle, greatly enhancing lifecycle value.
CellSwap is claimed to be a marine industry first that takes a ‘serviceable’ approach to battery components. While conventional batteries have to be recycled in their entirety, CellSwap enables battery cells to be replaced while almost all other components are preserved, including electric and cooling components, cell barriers and master battery unit (MBU). This is achieved due to the large percentage of aluminium present in PBES batteries, which enables the battery to be disassembled every five years and the lithium-ion cells removed and replaced. This approach is not possible using conventional batteries, which consist of plastic components that are glued together, rendering them inaccessible, and are typically replaced every ten years.
Commenting on the launch of CellSwap at Nor Shipping 2017, Brent Perry, CEO, PBES said: “After heavy investment in R&D, CellSwap represents genuinely revolutionary thinking in how marine batteries are designed and, consequentially, operated. By removing the need for full battery replacements, CellSwap delivers significant cost, efficiency and environmental benefits, while – crucially – enabling ship owners and operators to access the latest fast-moving innovations in battery cell technology when systems are replaced every five years, rather than having to wait for ten years.”
By Jake Frith
