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

ACUA Ocean是一家清洁海洋初创公司，设计了一艘长航时液氢动力无人水面船（H-USV）。据估计，到2030年，海洋和“蓝色经济”将创造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年），但我们缺乏可持续、经济有效地保护和管理海洋和水道的技术。自主无人水面舰艇（usv）有潜力提供可扩展的解决方案来管理和监控海上活动。然而，目前市场上的大多数usv由于续航力低或有效载荷能力有限，商业可行性有限，不适合真正的海上作业。为了实现高功率有效载荷的扩展范围，usv目前依赖于二氧化碳排放量高的柴油发电机，并且需要定期的载人维护，这限制了其最大可实现的续航力。为了解决这一挑战，ACUA海洋公司开发了一种氢动力USV (H-USV)，用于海上基础设施、港口和海洋保护区的安全、安保、环境监测和管理。ACUA Ocean的船只在5节航速下的续航时间为70天，最高航速为20节，可以使用一套机载传感器跟踪船只并提供环境数据，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可以大规模生产，将资本成本降低30%，在整个使用寿命期间，其成本比载人船低50%。与现有的载人解决方案相比，h - usv的使用将减少高达99.3%的二氧化碳排放，并在不牺牲动力的情况下减少维护和加油需求。这增加了射程、速度和续航时间，增加了现场作业。与劳埃德船级社和南安普顿大学海事研究所合作，我们将测试AO正在申请专利的h - usv的设计和运行的监管、技术、操作和商业环境的可行性。监管环境的发展和h - usv的技术设计将支持到2050年向净零过渡的技术发展。从这项可行性研究中获得的基础监管、操作和技术成果以及专业知识将加速在整个海运业中采用多种类型的液氢动力船舶。从长远来看，该项目有可能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的海员成为USV操作员，为海运业提供大量高技能的清洁技术工作。

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.