Feasibility of Ultra-Long-Endurance Hydrogen-Powered Uncrewed Surface Vessels

超长航时氢动力无人水面舰艇的可行性

• 批准号: 10005309
• 金额: $ 30.61万
• 依托单位: ACUA OCEAN LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10005309
• 关键词: Feasibility; Ultra; Long; Endurance; Hydrogen

ACUA Ocean is a clean-maritime start-up that has designed a long-endurance liquid hydrogen-powered uncrewed surface vessel (H-USV).The oceans and "blue economy" is estimated to deliver US$3tr economic value by 2030 and create 237m full-time jobs (Koehring,2019), yet we lack the technology to sustainably and cost-effectively protect and manage our oceans and waterways.Autonomous uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) have the potential to offer a scalable solution to manage and monitor maritime activities. However, most USVs available on the market today have limited commercial viability due to low endurance or restricted payload capacities, making them unsuitable for true offshore operations.To achieve extended ranges with high-power payloads, USVs currently rely on diesel generators with high CO2 emissions and require regular manned maintenance that limits their maximum achievable endurance.To solve this challenge, ACUA Ocean has developed a hydrogen-powered USV (H-USV) for safety, security and environmental monitoring and management of offshore infrastructure, ports, and marine protected areas. With an endurance of 70days at 5knots and a peak speed of 20knots ACUA Ocean's vessels can track vessels and provide environmental data using a suite of onboard sensors, communicate using VHF and LRAD systems whilst recording HD and thermal video for use as evidence.Our H-USV can be manufactured at scale, reducing capital costs by 30%, allowing for cost-effective operations that are 50% cheaper than manned vessels throughout their lifespan.The use of H-USVs will reduce operational CO2 emissions by up to 99.3% and offer reduced maintenance and refuelling requirements compared to existing manned solutions, without sacrificing on power. This allows for increased range, speed and endurance, increasing onsite operations.Working with Lloyds Register and the University of Southampton's Marine & Maritime Institute we will test the feasibility of the regulatory, technical, operational and commercial environments for the design and operation of AO's patent pending H-USVs.Development of the regulatory environment and technical design of H-USVs will support the development of technologies supporting the transition to Net Zero by 2050\. The foundational regulatory, operational and technical deliverables and know-how from this feasibility study will enable the accelerated adoption of multiple types of liquid hydrogen powered vessels across the maritime industry.Longer-term, this project has the potential to deliver significant numbers of highly skilled, cleantech jobs to the maritime industry through the re-skilling of mariners from the fishing and defence industry from geographically remote and rural communities to become USV operators.

ACUA Ocean是一家清洁海洋初创企业，设计了一艘长续航力液氢动力无人水面船（H-USV）。据估计，到2030年，海洋和“蓝色经济”将带来3万亿美元的经济价值，并创造2.37亿个全职工作岗位（Koehring，2019），然而，我们缺乏可持续和经济有效地保护和管理我们的海洋和水道的技术。有潜力提供可扩展的解决方案来管理和监测海事活动。然而，目前市场上可用的大多数USV由于耐久性低或有效载荷能力有限而具有有限的商业可行性，使得它们不适合真正的海上作业。为了实现具有高功率有效载荷的扩展范围，USV目前依赖于具有高CO2排放的柴油发电机，并且需要定期的人工维护，这限制了它们可实现的最大耐久性。ACUA海洋开发了一种氢动力USV（H-USV），用于海上基础设施，港口和海洋保护区的安全，安保和环境监测和管理。ACUA Ocean的船舶可以在5节的速度下持续70天，最高速度为20节，可以使用一套机载传感器跟踪船舶并提供环境数据，使用VHF和LRAD系统进行通信，同时记录高清和热视频作为证据。我们的H-USV可以大规模制造，减少30%的资本成本，在整个生命周期内，H-USV的成本效益比载人船舶低50%。与现有载人解决方案相比，H-USV的使用将减少高达99.3%的二氧化碳排放量，并减少维护和加油要求，而不牺牲功率。与劳埃德注册公司和南安普顿大学海洋与海事研究所合作，我们将测试监管、技术、为AO正在申请专利的H-USV的设计和操作提供操作和商业环境。USV将支持技术的开发，以支持到2050年向净零过渡。该可行性研究提供的基础监管、运营和技术交付成果以及专有技术将使多种类型的液氢动力船舶在整个海运业中得到加速采用。从长远来看，该项目有可能为全球提供大量高技能、高技术、高质量的船舶，清洁技术就业机会，以航运业通过重新-培训来自偏远地区和农村社区的渔业和国防工业海员成为无人艇操作员。