• Developed a hybrid wind–fuel cell–battery marine powertrain regulated by a multi-loop PI-based Energy Management System (EMS) designed for real-time marine operation. • Proposed computationally efficient, marine-certifiable PI control architecture achieving DC-bus voltage stability within ±5 % and fast transient recovery (≈0.6 s) under dynamic load variations, with minimal computational overhead suitable for real-time implementation. • The system had an average PEMFC electrical efficiency of about 55% (LHV basis) and used about 153 kg of hydrogen during a one-hour mission simulation. This is about 4% less than what it would use if it only used fuel cells. • Achieved approximately 4% hydrogen savings relative to a fuel-cell-only baseline by the coordinated integration of wind and battery subsystems, resulting in lower operational costs and environmental impact. • Showed balanced power-sharing (about 89.5% fuel cell, 7.2% battery, and 3.3% wind), which made propulsion more reliable and lowered stress on the fuel cell. • Validated the proposed PI-based EMS as a computationally efficient and marine-certifiable alternative to optimization-based methods (MPC, DRL). Maritime transport is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, so there is an urgent need for cleaner and more efficient propulsion technologies. Conventional marine diesel engines are still the most common source of power, but they produce large amounts of CO₂, NOx, and SOx. This paper deals with the problem of providing stable and sustainable marine power generation at low emissions. The main aim of this study is to develop and test a hybrid wind/FC/battery power system controlled by a PI controller and thus offering a low-emission and dependable supply of power for marine applications. A complete simulation model was developed in MATLAB/Simulink to analyze the performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), a lithium-ion battery, and a small onboard wind turbine. The PI-based Energy management system (EMS) was developed to share power between the two phases, maintain the DC-bus voltage stability, and limit the state of charge (SOC) battery within the operating limits during dynamic marine load profiles. Simulation results indicate that the PEMFC met around 89.5% of total energy demand, while the battery and wind subsystems accounted for about 7.2% and 3.3%, respectively. The DC-bus voltage was kept within ±5% of the nominal 750 V, and the battery SOC was kept within the operating range of 20-80%. The hybrid configuration led to an overall 4 percent reduction in hydrogen consumption, equating to a total hydrogen consumption of 153 kg h⁻¹. Variations of ±20% in wind speed had less than ±3% effect on hydrogen consumption, which proved the robustness and stability of the proposed system. The PI-controlled hybrid fuel cell (FC) /battery/wind system provides a feasible, low-complexity, and highly efficient green marine propulsion system. It has shown clear potential to meet the maritime decarbonization goals and other benefits by reducing fuel consumption and emissions while providing a scalable platform for future sustainable vessel designs.
Banawi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.