Development on land-based test-bed for eco-friendly ship propulsion system considering ocean environment

Abstract

As the environmental pollution problem is currently being highlighted worldwide, the shipbuilding and offshore industry has tried to reduce the greenhouse gas by hull shape optimization, mechanical dynamics improvement, or advanced operation plan, while it is quite difficult to make a significant contribution. Besides, the concept of a fuel propulsion system such as a mixed-fuels combustion engine, a secondary battery, and a fuel cell, which might significantly reduce the emission of environmental pollutants, is nowadays introduced and investigated. The real ship-based technology investigation for such eco-friendly ships is a financial burden because it includes a huge construction cost. In this sense, if the final verification of the suggested system can be done on land, it will minimize the cost of building a research vessel and prevent marine accidents that may occur during the evaluation of systems that have not been confirmed in advance. In this study, the current status of development of an eco-friendly ship fuel propulsion system land evaluation system that can take into account the marine environment is dealt with. In Korea, most of the small and medium-sized ships operating in the domestic coast are equipped with 1MW-class propulsion systems and many of them are outdated for more than 25 years. In addition, by providing high-resolution information on the marine environment of domestic coastal routes and calculating the optimal route, we intend to develop a technology to evaluate technically and scientifically on land to enable stable domestic operation of next-generation eco-friendly coastal ships.