Electric Propulsion System Powertrain Estimation for Houseboats using Backward Simulation

Houseboat tourism has emerged as the backbone of the tourism industry of Kerala. Over the past two decades, tremendous increase has been seen in the number of houseboats in lakes and backwaters of the state and it is still growing. Houseboats use fossil fuel based internal combustion engines for their propulsion. It harms the environment and ecology through intense carbon emissions, oil spillages, unrestricted sewage water dumping noise pollution etc. While the carbon emission has a direct impact on global warming, the oil spillage and improper waste management affects the marine ecology like, damaging the marine organisms and significant buildup of marine debris. A recreational vessel with zero carbon emission can only be accomplished through the electrification of the propulsion system and the hotel load system. In this paper the electric propulsion system in houseboat has been considered. It is proposed to replace the conventional internal combustion engine in houseboats with electric propulsion system. This paper details the powertrain subsystem estimation of electric propulsion system for houseboat using backward simulation approach. For this backward simulation method is used to analyse the power and energy required for the propulsion and thereby arrive at the estimation of motor and source. Replacing the conventional internal combustion engine with electric propulsion in the existing houseboats is considered to bring about a huge impact by reducing the carbon emissions and its environment hazards. the number of houseboats is expected to rise in near future. So once the system is implemented it shall be a giant leap towards deployment of clean and green energy projects and shall aid electric mobility initiatives of the nation.