Marine and motive power
In transportation, batteries are a good fit for lighter vehicles in an urban environment. As you require more power density for heavier vehicles a hybrid battery and fuel cell system, such as the 30kW range extender for buses and commercial vehicles we are developing with Weichai Power for the Chinese market, is ideal. Especially for high-utilisation, long-distance applications, or vehicles with heavy payloads. Similarly, in decarbonising heavier transportation such as shipping we are seeing strong interest in our fuel-flexible technology as a route to decarbonisation.
Marine
- The decarbonisation of shipping is being driven by regulation and targets from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The industry has accepted this need for change and is proactively adopting technologies and fuels to help meet these targets. Ceres is currently developing a modular-based system for a range of marine applications including coastal, portside and offshore.
- Ceres’ systems produce electrical power at very high efficiency and have the added advantage of being able to be integrated with heat recovery systems to provide heat to vessels.
- The technology is robust, durable and handles vibration well, with straightforward integration and in-life servicing making them well suited to marine environments. Unlike off the shelf products, our common design allows licensees to configure a stack system design to their requirements, providing flexibility and optimum performance.
- Ceres’ technology is fuel flexible, so as the industry transitions to new fuels, the Ceres technology can flex, to adapt to different end market requirements offering a future-proof solution for industry.
Ceres’ SOFC technology offers a highly differentiated and fuel flexible solution for maritime
In 2021 Ceres was awarded two separate projects as part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, run by the UK Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK. The two projects in which Ceres was involved evaluated the most effective means to integrate Ceres’ solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology in megawatt class cruise ship applications, to reduce carbon emissions in the marine sector.
Project: Avoiding the hard cell
Fuel cell integration into a large ship’s power architecture
Ceres partnered with GE Power Conversion, MSC Cruise Management UK and Lloyd’s Register and confirmed the feasibility of using a 10MW fuel cell power installation on a large vessel to replace diesel-fuelled generators. Run on natural gas, it is predicted to deliver a ~47% reduction in CO2 emissions and eliminate NOx almost entirely from the exhaust stream, when operated over the same energy demand profile. In future, it could utilise green hydrogen or clean fuels as a route to remove emissions further.
Project: Zero carbon base load power for large ships
Working with Carnival UK, Shell, Lloyd’s Register and the University of Southampton, this study investigated the feasibility of using Ceres’ solid oxide fuel cells, coupled with batteries, to replace conventional diesel generators for continuous or ‘base-load’ energy on state-of-the-art cruise vessels powered by liquefied natural gas. The study demonstrated a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 36% at sea, while substantially reducing NOx and eliminating particulate matter. Operating the system on hydrogen could eliminate emissions from baseload demand almost entirely.
Motive
Ceres SteelCell™ technology is best suited to heavy payload and long-range transportation applications. In partnership with Weichai Power, Ceres has developed a unique electric vehicle (EV) range extender system operating at high efficiency and with very low emissions. By utilising existing liquid and gas refuelling infrastructure, it is able to significantly increase fleet operating effectiveness compared with pure EV. The highly durable and low cost Ceres SteelCell™, which can be operated on a wide range of fuels, is a key technology within the portfolio of future power trains. Weichai has successfully demonstrated 30kW range extender for electric buses with the potential to move to higher power applications. These systems are powered by natural gas but can also run on hydrogen blends, as at February 2022 the fleet have completed 60,000km whilst generating power.