Design criteria of on-board propulsion for hybrid electric boats

Electric propulsion represents the new research frontier in the future ship technology. There are different hybrid topologies requiring sizing criteria of components and related control strategies, finalized to maximize different objective functions: weight and space reduction on-board, fuel economy, pollution reduction or optimized efficiencies. In the paper sizing criteria of on-board sources and energy storage systems are proposed for a hybrid series architecture for a typical “passenger boat”. Two different design criteria are proposed for a series architecture: a criterion aims to ensure that the engine-generator group runs at fixed speed and power, whereas the other consists to run the engine at variable power and speed. The procedure for an optimal design of an on-board sources is set up and validated by numerical applications on a 23 m long passenger boat having a displacement of 37 tons.