Electric Eel is designed to answer EU name for greener inland waterways vessels
To meet its decarbonization ambitions, the European Union is in search of to maneuver more cargo from roads to inland waterways using greener vessels. Lithuanian ship designer Western Baltic Engineering (WBE), a part of the Western Shipyard Group, has provide you with an answer to the “greener vessels” half. It has unveiled plans for an electrical push boat vessel it calls the Electric Eel.
The first of the electrical pushers is because of be constructed subsequent yr for the Lithuanian Inland Waterways Authority. a public physique working underneath Lithuanian Government Ministry of Transport and Communications.
“We are so excited to unveil this electric pusher design,” mentioned WBE’s head of gross sales & advertising and marketing Eglė Mikalauskienė, “The Electric Eel has huge potential to help cut carbon emissions on inland waterways across Europe and worldwide. The idea came after we were approached by the Lithuanian Maritime Cluster to see if we could help the Lithuanian Inland Waterways authority create an eco-efficient pusher. The authority has big plans to ramp up use of the 450 kilometer stretch of waterway between Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea to Kaunas to switch cargo from the road network in line with EU policy. It is brilliant to be supporting this bold vision and work on a sustainable clean fuel solution right here on our own doorstep. As a measure of the impact the authority estimates the pusher can help remove 10,000 trucks a year from Lithuania’s roads.”
“The market is huge,” Mikalauskienė added. “According to figures there is a fleet of 332 diesel pushers on the Danube alone pushing more than 2,000 non-propelled barges. We estimate each of these vessels is emitting 196,317 kg tank-to-wheel (TTW) of CO2, per voyage, while our electric pusher design slashes this at a stroke as it emits zero CO2. The beauty of our design is also in its ease of use, it can be bought and then built at a local shipyard near the customer or we can built it in Lithuania. We believe our electric pusher is a first mover in the market and can play a critical role in the drive to transform the inland waterways transportation of Lithuania as well as the Danube and Rhine.”
The freight transported on European waterways being very totally different from that transported on the U.S. inland waterways, the Electric Eel seems to be very totally different to any U.S. inland river push boat.
The Electric Eel design is pending class Approval in Principle with Bureau Veritas. Designed to have a variety of 300 kilometers (about 186 miles) earlier than needing to cease, the 26 meters lengthy vessel is powered by three DNV accepted batteries with a mixed weight of 74 tonnes, two held in TEU containers on deck that may be changed by way of crane at harbor, and one everlasting battery under deck that may be charged at quayside.
The vessel has a pushing capability of two,000 tonnes and a high pace of twenty-two km/h downstream at 85 % engine load. The electrical batteries ship an engine energy of 500 hp/400 kW in comparison with an equal diesel pusher’s 1,000 hp/800 kW.
“The biggest challenge we faced was weight and draft,” Mikalauskienė mentioned. “The Lithuanian inland waterway is presently very shallow so we needed to design a vessel that was as gentle as potential, not more than 195 dwt, with a draft not higher than 1.2 meters. So we’ve got created a super-efficient hull design that can function brilliantly on shallow waters in Europe and world wide. Through trial and error utilizing rigorous computerized fluid dynamic (CFD) testing we’ve got produced the smoothest potential hull resistance. We’re additionally utilizing skinny lighter metal, accepted by class, to cut back weight whereas on the similar time retaining security of paramount significance. In addition, we’ve got innovated the wheelhouse, utilizing a jack up design fabricated from aluminum, once more to unfold and scale back weight.
Another innovation on board is using a wind turbine to generate 5 kW of extra electrical energy for lighting, the galley and crew services.
