Propulsion of Vessel

PROPULSION OF VESSEL - AN ELABRATION ON THE VARIOUS FUEL TECHNOLOGIES AVAILABLE WITH EMPHASIS ON ELETRICAL POWER STORED IN BATTERIES/ FUEL CELLS. INTRODUCTION “The marine industry is undergoing a transformation. As well as managing today’s rising operational costs and achieving cost-effective environmental compliance, ship operators are faced with tomorrow’s “big decisions”. Decisions about fuels, technology and whether it is possible to “future-proof” their fleet and assets.” (“Lloyds Register Marine & University College London”, 2014, URL) Nowadays in shipping industry the main actual theme is about fuel efficiency. Everyone who is taking a part of it is interested to find new and effective ways to discover any solution to reduce voyage costs. Mainly to keep costs as small as possible to earn more profit. In the same time it not all about the money and profit but the new alternatives fuel ways must be environment friendly and must be in accordance with international regulations. In this case the main role plays real possibility to find and apply future marine fuels in reality. If we want to predict and visualize the Maritime industry`s future we need to know about the current fuel types and nearest future alternative fuel types which will enter the market in soonest future and clearly will make some consequences to the industry. In this essay we will take a look at vessels propulsion based on an elaboration on the various fuel technologies available and the main emphasis on electrical power stored in batteries/fuel-cells.