ridiculous.

The hydrogen is provided by Beacon Energy Ltd based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, and is produced by electrolysis powered by electricity from wind turbines (“green” hydrogen).

and no one in that team thought about using directly electricity to charge batteries, which is much more efficient (3 times) than the hydrogen way ?

given the virtually non-existent problem of batteries weight on a boat, this is not only a solution looking for a problem, but a bad solution preferred to a simpler, cheaper and more efficient one.

a shadok invention, as we say in France ;-)

One of the overlooked negatives of battery-electric vehicles is that they're pretty much impossible to 'refuel' away from fixed recharging stations. If my liquid-fueled vehicle runs out of gas, it's easy enough to call for help, and at worst I can walk to the nearest station and buy a can of fuel. While I may not be able to buy a 'can' of hydrogen, it would be no difficulty for roadside assistance vehicles to have the capability to transfer a kilo of hydrogen to another vehicle.

But with an electric vehicle, no such luck. It's either an expensive towtruck, or maybe hypothetically a generator vehicle that will pull up, run a line to my car, and sit there for an hour or so charging me up to the point that I can get to a fixed recharging point, at which time I'll spend another hour or two juicing up enough to get home, at which point I plug in for a few hours more to get back to full operating capability.

Battery-electric vehicles have a lot going for them, but there are practical reasons why one would want to have chemical fuels on board. And if you're going to have a chemical fuel on board, it might as well be a nice clean one like hydrogen.

I would like to see a battery powered barge with solar panels.

Matthew,

You can always recharge a EV with a little generator, even one in the car, hence the PHEV.

Glad you finally admitted that jack! When it is affordable I would like to see it on small ships.

Jack,

I don't think a nuclear reactor will fit on a ship that small, but if it was a large Post-Panamax cargo ship that needs to travel at continues speeds over long distances day and night, yeah a modular particle bed reactor would be perfect.

Why not give everyone a single-use, personal dingy with a disposable nuclear-reactor-powered motor? :-) They run very hot, plus they offer the manufacturer a returning revenue model. When you're done using one, just flip a switch and the weight of the radioactive heavy metals will sink your unit to the bottom of the river, out of sight forever.

Great idea! Anything but solar!

There are a number of points that need to be factored in when discussing this hybrid hydrogen battery powered craft:
Firstly batteries have got a long way to go to be anywhere near perfect, no one really can tell you exactly how much power is left in a lead acid battery from a blind state of use. The best anyone can give is an early warning of power failure due to voltage-current characteristics changing with state of charge, how old the battery is and previous usage of the battery. In contrast to the hydrogen, due to monitoring the flow of hydrogen in and out of the store the operators know exactly how much energy they have remaining.
Secondly all batteries have a self discharge mechanism due to leaking currents within the cells, this results in a loss of charge over time. Metal hydride hydrogen storage does not have this problem (as long as there are no leaks) the energy will remain stored indefinitely.
Thirdly it is significantly quicker to recharge with hydrogen than it is to recharge the onboard battery.

Although there are significant advantages to the energy stored in the hydrogen, batteries still play an important role within the craft, for example handling peak loads (maneuvering, onboard appliances- kettles etc) and for handling the regenerative loads, i.e. back emf from drive motors.

This application will provide an ideal test bed and demonstration to show how effective hydrogen can be as a clean fuel. It will be very interesting to this technology scaled up and to see the project progresses over the next couple of years.

Well said, JP. The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.

Hi Guys thought you might be interested
Ferretti, the luxury Italian yachtmaker, has teamed up with the German automotive group ZF to develop a new form of “green” motor yacht that for substantial periods will operate entirely on its on-board batteries, even with the air conditioning full on.

The private company will announce the new yacht today. It says the vessel will be capable of saving large amounts of energy while also emitting less carbon dioxide – the main “greenhouse” gas linked to global warming.

Apart from these attributes, a large selling point for customers for the new yacht – most forms of which are likely to sell for about €3m ($4.7m) – is that while in electric mode it will be far less noisy than yachts that rely solely on diesel engines.

That will go down well with people who seek the peace and quiet of sailing boats, as well as the capabilities of engine-powered boats to keep moving even in a calm.

The majority owner of Ferretti is Candover, the private equity firm, which has announced its intention to seek a listing on the Milan stock exchange. In recent months Ferretti has reported that demand for its boats – the biggest of which can sell for €50m – is holding up, in spite of the difficulties of the global economy. The vessel has been developed in partnership with ZF, which is highly regarded for its innovative approach to gearbox design.

While ZF has come up with a new form of transmission system, which includes an electric motor, Ferretti has also worked with an unnamed battery company, believed to be based in Asia. This is providing a large lithium-ion battery to store electricity for the periods when the diesel engines – of which two will be on board each vessel – are not operating.

The boat also has a sophisticated engine management system that uses computer controls to switch as necessary between the diesel and electric modes. The 500 volt onboard battery, weighing about 2.5 tonnes and rechargeable while at a port, will be capable of providing energy to the vessel for up to nine hours, of which one hour would be spent on the move with another eight hours at rest.

Andrea Frabetti, head of the company’s engineering division, said: “We have seen a lot of interest in a more environmentally friendly form of yacht.”

One stumbling block for the new boat is the limitations of current lithium-ion battery technology, which means the range of the boat while running off stored electric power will be limited to short trips. However, Ferretti hopes that new developments in this technology will increase the range within the next few years.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008