Energy efficiency enhancement onboard by use an innovative system of turbines integrated to tanker ship hull

Abstract

The environmental awareness and rising costs of marine fuel led research activities to focus on eliminating the dependence on fossil fuels as a traditional source of energy. Clean and renewable energies, such as hydro energy for instance, could be used onboard to enhance the ship energy efficiency.In this research, a novel type of capturing energy is used. By exploiting the water flow that is​ generated around the ship hull while sailing overseas, and putting turbines to face this flow, the turbines will spin, and consequently generate a useful energy that may be used to cover a part of needed power onboard. An innovative system of array of turbines integrated to the second version of Kriso Very Large Crude Carrier (KVLCC2)’s hull was modeled, and the numerical investigations, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), were carried out to analyze the effect of this link on the propulsion hull power and the hull resistance. The gross generated power was calculated, then the additional hull resistance converted to resistance power was estimated to find out the net power of the system which could be used later.To calculate the excess resistance added to the hull resistance, the flow simulations were conducted on the hull itself and its resistance was numerically calculated and validated with the experimental calculations found in literature. Also verification & validation were carried out on the turbines before their integration to the hull to assure their computerized three-dimensional 3D model design. Using the characteristics of KVLCC2 hull in this study, with the attachment of an array of 10 spherical vertical axis turbines to each side of the hull. An excess net power of about 15%–17% of the required effective power of the ship was obtained. Thus, the study presents a new solution for utilizing the renewable hydro-power onboard which limits the great dependence of the fossil fuel.