Conceptual design of a hybrid propulsion vessel for transporting green hydrogen to aquaculture farms

This work describes the conceptual design process of a vessel intended to transport green hydrogen to aquaculture farms in the Aysén Region, Chile. The design proposes a hybrid power generation configuration, which integrates PEM fuel cells (PEMFC) and a battery bank, to ensure efficient and continuous operation. Within the propulsion system, the implementation of an azimuthal Z-drive system is established, enhancing maneuverability for efficient operations in the cultivation centers. The process includes an exhaustive analysis of the ship's mission profile, together with improvements in hull design, evaluating the forward resistance by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Power demand under different sailing conditions is also considered, with the objective of optimizing the power generation capacity of the plant and the hydrogen storage required for the propulsion and transport system. The development of this work is part of the PT02 project at the Sustainable Acceleration Center for Electromobility (CASE).