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Overview of past, present and future marine power plants

Article in Journal of Marine Science and Application · June 2013

DOI: 10.1007/s11804-013-1188-8

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J. Marine Sci. Appl. (2013) 12: 219-227
DOI: 10.1007/s11804-013-1188-8

Overview of Past, Present and Future Marine Power Plants

M.Morsy El-Gohary1,2
1. Marine engineering Department, Faculty of maritime studies, King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
2. Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt

Abstract: In efforts to overcome an foreseeable energy crisis The world then started investigations and researches for
predicated on limited oil and gas supplies, reserves; economic non-petroleum fuels to be less harmful to the environment and
variations facing the world, and of course the environmental side reduce the dependency on foreign energy imports.
effects of fossil fuels, an urgent need for energy sources that
Biofuels are considered as one of the suggestions; they are
provide sustainable, safe and economic supplies for the world is
imperative. The current fossil fuel energy system must be improved
not new since Rudolph Diesel’s work was based on the use of
to ensure a better and cleaner transportation future for the world. vegetable oil as fuel for his invention (Knothe, 2001). But the
Despite the fact that the marine transportation sector consumes only problem of emissions of greenhouse gases still exists, with
5% of global petroleum production; it is responsible for 15% of the this type of method, because carbon is one of the main
world NOx and SOx emissions. These figures must be the engine constituents. In other words the biofuels are one type of
that powers the scientific research worldwide to develop new hydrocarbons and do not solve the problem totally.
solutions for a very old energy problem. In this paper, the most
effective types of marine power plants were discussed. The history
of the development of each type was presented first and the
technical aspects were discussed second. Also, the fuel cells as a
new type of power plants used in marine sector were briefed to give
a complete overview of the past, present and future of the marine
power plants development. Based on the increased worldwide
concerns regarding harmful emissions, many researchers have
introduced solutions to this problem, including the adoption of new
cleaner fuels. This paper was guided using the same trend and by
implementing the hydrogen as fuel for marine internal combustion
engine, gas turbines, and fuel cells.
Keywords: marine power plants; alternative fuels; gas turbines;
diesel engines; hydrogen engines; fuel cells; hydrogen fuel

Article ID: 1671-9433(2013)02-0219-09 Fig. 1 Global energy supply projection to 2055

1 Introduction1 1.1 Natural gas as a fuel

Another suggestion was natural gas, like the biofuels, it has
The introduction of fossil fuels started out slowly as a less emission levels than petroleum products but the problem
replacement of coal for all transportation sectors, dating back of limited resources remains. But the fact that the natural gas
from the beginning of the 20th century. But, not until the early is fossil, i.e. it is ready to be used without the need for further
the 70’s of this century did the world start to realize the scientific developments, this fact makes the natural gas the
danger of interrupting fuel supplies. This interruption was due ideal temporary solution to replace the other petroleum fuels
to the oil crisis during the Arab-Israeli war in 1973 and the because the biofuels pass in a long chain to reach the final
Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. The western developed consumer, some links in this chain require additional
countries started to think about energy independence and later researches.
they were convinced by the environmental drawbacks The use of natural gas in internal combustion engines has
following the use of fossil petroleum products. Another issue been researched thoroughly to reach the optimum case in both
had a considerable interest, the limited resources of petroleum engine performance and environmental impact. Both types of
products and the fact that every day the available quantity of internal combustion engines were studied; the compression
oil is reduced; Fig. 1 shows the global energy supply from ignition and the spark ignition engines. All problems
different sources as estimated to 2050. associated with the use of natural gas in these engines were
dependent of the injection timing inside the engine cylinders
Received date: 2012-11-01. and the cylinder geometry, accurate control is needed to avoid
Revised date: 2012-12-05.
*Corresponding author Email: [email protected] engine knocking and high emission formation levels. Lean
© Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 burn concepts also were investigated to reach low emission
220 M.Morsy El-Gohary. Overview of Past, Present and Future Marine Power Plants

conditions (Zhang and Frankel, 1998; Zeng et al., 2006; combustion engines have as result a slight increase in the
Papagiannakis and Hountalas, 2004). engine thermal efficiency with a decrease in engine output
Another application for the natural gas, is the gas turbines power and torque (White et al., 2005).
field; it is used worldwide in electric generation stations either For the application of hydrogen in gas turbines, the
alone or in cogeneration plants where the resulting heat is scientific community witnessed many research programs and
used for district heating purposes to increase the plant overall technical investigations to study the characteristics of
efficiency. In Egypt 58% of the country’s gas production goes hydrogen combustion inside gas turbine combustors.
to the electric generation sector, accounting for nearly 75% of Basically there are three methods applied in the gas turbine
the total generating capacity (US DOE, 2008). Almost all gas market to reduce emissions from ordinary gas turbines
turbine manufacturers produce units working with natural gas, powered by petroleum products or natural gas; dry low NOx
and in fact, gas turbines are better used with gas rather than combustors, flame dilution by the addition of steam or adding
liquid fuels. This method is a better choice for the cleanliness catalytic reducers at the exhaust systems. Not all of these
of gas combustion and the elimination of the soot production techniques can be used with hydrogen due to its special
that deposit on the turbine blades. From the emissions combustion characteristics ( Chiesa et al., 2005).
viewpoint the natural gas itself produces less emissions in gas All researches have common conclusions; the direct
turbines than in internal combustion engines, except for CO2 substitution of natural gas or other fuel oils results in an
because of the higher fuel consumption in gas turbines and its increase in NOx levels and the reduction of these levels
lower efficiency than internal combustion engines (Canova et necessitates additional modification to be made to the
al., 2008). combustor design in the dry combustor designs or increasing
the rate of dilution achieved by steam addition (Ziemann et al.,
1.2 Hydrogen as a fuel 1998; Dahl and Suttrop, 1998).
Another resource thought to be the fuel of the future for In order to achieve the maximum benefits from using the
decades is hydrogen gas. The scientific research concerning hydrogen, many ideas encouraged the use of blends of natural
the use of hydrogen in transportation began shortly after the gas with hydrogen with different proportions either in internal
first oil crisis. Many car manufacturers started development combustion engines or gas turbines, the results for engines
programs to produce cars that could operate by hydrogen fuel showed the improvement of the natural gas case when the
in internal combustion engines (DeLuchi, 1989). The emissions are considered, but for the gas turbines, the
beginning was in Germany and Japan and the USA followed admission of hydrogen to natural gas in ordinary combustors
them. Nowadays, the USA has national programs for the without special measures to reduce NOx resulted in increased
development of hydrogen systems especially for fuel cell emission rates (El-Gohary, 2012).
applications to overcome any combustion related problems Another use of hydrogen is the fuel cells. Huge
(US DOE, 2007). developments have been achieved in this sector over the past
Combustion of hydrogen inside internal combustion few years. But for the marine field only the naval vessels
engines has been, and still is, the subject for many research market used it for auxiliary power generation and quiet
programs in many countries. Like the natural gas, the main operation of submarines, and for commercial market the
problems associated with the application of hydrogen in development achieved so far is not enough to convince ship
internal combustion engines include the engine knocking; air owners to use this fine technology product. From all types of
fuel ratio and intake temperature were found to be the main fuel cells, only two are the candidates for the use onboard; the
causes for this problem and their optimization is a must to proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and the
have a knock free engine (Hailin and Ghazi, 2004) molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) fueled by hydrogen rich
Some problems were discovered to be only related to the fuels like natural gas or alcohols (Alkaner and Zhou, 2006;
hydrogen due to its special characteristics; these Tomczak et al., 2002).
characteristics are the high flame speed and the low ignition
energy, the problems associated are the steep rise of cylinder 2 Overview of marine power plants
pressure and possibility of fuel pre-ignition leading to
The International Maritime Organization amended its 1973
potential explosions inside the engine systems (Banawan et al.,
MARPOL convention by Annex VI for the air pollution from
2010; Ma et al., 2003).
ships; this annex limited the maximum emission rates from
Regarding the emissions, it is evident that the hydrogen
ships. Following these new regulations engine manufacturers
produces fewer emissions almost in all engine operating
started to develop new methods and techniques to reduce the
conditions, due to the higher combustion temperature in
SOx, NOx and CO2 emissions from their engines to meet the
hydrogen engines, the NOx rates were found high in some
new limits.
cases and many solutions were produced, all of them use well
One key solution for the emission problems from marine
proved technologies used nowadays with normal engines,
engines was to achieve fuel consumption savings by
these technologies include exhaust gas recirculation and
introducing more accurate engine control techniques resulted
catalytic reduction filters (Heffel, 2003; Ho et al., 2008).
in the birth of electronically controlled engines. Also,
Most of the researches done on hydrogen internal
common rail fuel systems were one of the results of the
Journal of Marine Science and Application (2013) 12: 219-227 221

extensive researches made to achieve low fuel consumptions boiler steam cycles. Nuclear and electric power plants are out
and lower emissions rates. Other techniques like selective of scope since they are used in a small percentage of vessels
catalytic reduction and water injection inside the diesel engine worldwide and their advantages are favored in only a small
cylinders were also adopted (Woud and Stapersma, 2003). sector of maritime transportation. Fuel cells as a new
In 2006, 1642 commercial ships of more than 2000 GT technology introduced recently to the marine sector will be
were built worldwide with 1617 of them powered by 1917 highlighted in brief.
diesel engines, these engines’ power capacity was in the order
of 22000 MW (Woodyard, 2004). In spite of the fact that 2.1.1 Steam power plants
more than 98% of the commercial vessels were powered by The first application ever of steam power was in England in
diesel engines, more ships are constructed every year with gas 1712 when Thomas Newcomen invented the first steam
turbine units for electric generation purposes especially in the engine to pump water out of mines (see Fig. 3) (Harrington,
passenger transportation sector. 1992). In 1776 James Watt made basic improvements to the
Before reviewing the main types used nowadays of marine engine and his name is more frequently associated with steam
power plants, the power plant itself must be defined first. engines development (Shlyakhin, 2005).
The marine power plant is that part of the ship responsible
for generating both mechanical and electrical power for the
ship propulsion and various electric consumers. Usually, these
two operations are achieved separately, but in some
configurations both are performed together. Fig. 2 shows
diagrammatic representations for the two power plant options.

Fig. 3 Newcomen first steam engine

The application of steam engines in the marine field started

in the 1780s in Europe and America simultaneously with at
least seven steamers built until 1807 all of them working with
Fig. 2 Power plants options, (up) separate propulsion and
Scotch (fire tube) boilers (Harrington, 1992).
electric generation (down) combined propulsion and
electric generation Due to its increased efficiency and higher power to weight
ratio if compared with the steam engine, the steam turbine has
According to the above classification, the power plant may completely replaced the reciprocating steam engine. The first
be of the electric type, where propulsion is done via electric idea of steam turbine was established by Hero of Alexandria
motors, or the conventional type, where mechanical power in 120 B.C. (see Fig. 4). Later in 1551, the Egyptian scientist
from the prime mover drives the propulsion either directly or Taqi El-Din developed an invention based on the steam
through a gearbox. turbine principle (Grove1839). In 1629, the Italian scientist
Giovanni Branca described a machine based on the same idea
2.1 Types of traditional marine power plants (Grove, 1842). Finally in 1886, the known steam turbine was
The marine power plants are mainly classified according to invented by Charles Parsons and few years later, the American
the type of the prime mover responsible for the propulsion George Westinghouse scaled up the output power, many
power generation. Three main prime movers exist; internal variations and developments followed like the famous Curtis,
combustion engines, gas turbines and steam turbines. Nuclear de Laval and Rateau turbines.
powered or oil fired boiler powered steam cycles are used Nowadays the major commercial user of steam power
with steam turbines according to the vessel type. plants is the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) sector, where the
Combinations of the previous types also exist and new BOG (Boil-Off Gas) from the natural gas cargo is burnt in
technologies are gaining more and more concern worldwide, boilers to generate steam (Lamb, 2004).
e.g. all electric ships.
The scope of this thesis focuses mainly on the commercial
power plants, i.e. diesel engines, gas turbines and ordinary
222 M.Morsy El-Gohary. Overview of Past, Present and Future Marine Power Plants

1885.
The first compression ignition engine – the famous diesel
engine – named after the German Rudolph Diesel received the
first patent in 1893, but it was in 1900 that Diesel
demonstrated his invention to the public in the Exposition
Universally (International Fair) in France after the first
successful operation in 1897. The major modification to the
diesel engine was in 1902 when F. Rundolf invented the two
stroke scavenged engine.

Fig. 4 Hero steam turbine

A typical steam power plant is composed of four main

components; boiler(s), turbine(s), condenser and feeding
pump. The boilers used in steam power plants are of the water
tube type, where water flows inside the tube banks surrounded
by hot combustion gases. Steam conditions at boiler exit are
in the range of 40 bars and 250°C for saturated steam and
450°C for superheated steam, these values being lower than
those achieved in land based steam plants limit the steam
power plant efficiency to around 30% (Woud and Stapersma,
2003).
Auxiliary power onboard the ship is generated by means of
steam turbo-generators but the presence of diesel gensets is
unavoidable, either for peak load usage or as emergency
Fig. 5 One of the first diesel engines built by B&W in 1906
generators. Also, some of the ship machinery may be steam
driven like cargo pumps in case of large oil tankers (Lamb, The first diesel engine propelled ship is believed to be the
2004). Russian river tanker Vandal built in 1903. Since then the
One of the key operations the main power plant has to diesel engines have been installed in many small units and by
achieve is the astern motion of the ship, in steam driven ships 1910 there were more than 30 commercial vessels over 30 m
this is done by one of two methods; the first by using long in the world. In the same year 1910, the first seagoing
gearboxes able to reverse the motion in addition to speed vessel has been built, it was the Romagna fitted with Sulzer
reduction and in this method the steam turbine continues to diesel engines delivering 280 kW at 250 r/min each.
run in the same direction, the second is by admitting the steam Only two years after the introduction of the first motor ship,
to separate astern stages within the low pressure turbine since about 300 motor vessels have been in service with a total of
the astern motion requires far less power than ahead motion. 235 000 GRT (Gross Registered Tonnage). Ten years later
The main manufacturers of marine steam turbines available there were about 2000 ships and that number grew to 8000 by
on the market are Hyundai, Kawasaki and Mitsubishi with 1940 constituting 60% of the world's tonnage at that time
unit power ranging from 5 000 to 45 000 kW, while Siemens (Woud and Stapersma, 2003).
provide steam turbines with power up to 100 000 kW. All diesel engines whatever their size or type works on the
same air standard cycle, i.e. the Diesel cycle or the constant
2.1.2 Diesel power plants pressure air standard cycle. Diesel cycle engines are preferred
It was in 1824 when the French physicist Sadi Carnot over Otto cycle engines in marine field for the ability of the
established a new theory in heat engines stating the need for former to work with high pressure ratios, in Otto cycle
compression to increase the difference between the upper and knocking may occur at high compression ratios leading to
lower working temperatures. Before Carnot, many internal reduced efficiencies and possible damage for the engine parts.
combustion engines were invented but worked on a This high pressure ratio allows the engine to develop more
compression less principle giving very low power output and power for the same size.
efficiency. After many trials and modifications, the German Another aspect making the diesel engine preferred is its
Nikolaus Otto working with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm ability to work with low quality and thus low cost fuels which
Maybach developed in 1876 the first four stroke engine is an essential factor in a ship economics.
working on the well known Otto cycle. After three years and The distinction between the slow, medium and high speed
based on the Otto work, Karl Benz developed the first two ranges is not established officially but a range of 200 to 300
stroke engine in 1879. Few years later, the supercharging r/min is the margin between slow and medium speed while
principle was patented after the work of Gottlieb Daimler in
Journal of Marine Science and Application (2013) 12: 219-227 223

between medium and high speed the range is from 1000 to Hydrogen is considered a good candidate for such
1200 rpm (Woud and Stapersma, 2003). replacement. This paper introduces the procedures followed to
The diesel engines give good flexibility for the naval design a hydrogen internal combustion engine.
architect to achieve the required speed for a given ship with Many technologies are available these days or under
the best fuel economy. A ship propulsion system can be research for hydrogen storage, but till now none of these have
consisted of only one diesel engine and in some cases up to 12 the ability to store as much hydrogen as the liquid storage
engines - only for propulsion - especially in naval vessels methods. Hydrogen is suggested to be stored in insulated
requiring large propulsion flexibility and high redundancy cryogenic tanks at −253˚C; the problem with this type of
levels like the world war II H-class German battleships storage is its volume (4.15 times more than liquid
(Zhang and Frankel, 1998). For the electric generation, the hydrocarbon fuel for the same travel range (El-Gohary and
diesel engine is almost the only engine type used even with El-Sherif, 2006).
other types of prime movers used for propulsion. Also the
diesel engines have the best efficiency levels of all other
means of propulsion with a range of 35% to 55%.

2.1.3 Hydrogen internal combustion engine

The introduction of new fuel types like hydrogen into the
field of maritime transport is considered to be a challenge due
to the severe environmental conditions the marine power plant
has to work in. Therefore, any attempt to introduce a new Fig. 6 Hydrogen fuel system
technology in this field must be accompanied by sufficient
studies and experimental data to provide the engineers and Hydrogen should be used as a marine fuel in internal
ship operators with enough data about the new fuel type used. combustion engines; this has been suggested to make use of
This data has to be experimentally approved but in the first the existing diesel engines used in order to prevent
and preliminary stages of design of power plants working manufacturing new systems and minimize the cost to only
with new fuels it may not be available or feasible to make modifications to existing engines. The suggested engine will
large scale experiments, so a computer program is used to operate on hydrogen directly injected into the cylinders. Low
give reasonably accurate data about the new design. The energy sparks will be needed to avoid using amounts of diesel
demand on energy production will be increased by increasing fuel in order to initiate combustion. Fuel pumps and sparks
the population and sea borne trade. The use of other are to be electronically controlled (cam less) to ensure the
alternatives oil should start to replace diesel oil onboard ships. optimum performance at various operating conditions.

Fig. 7 Schematic Engine control systems

Fig. 8 Direct coupling propulsion Fig. 9 Hydrogen electric propulsion

224 M.Morsy El-Gohary. Overview of Past, Present and Future Marine Power Plants

Many propulsion arrangements exist to propel the ship, one generation, part of this power is directed to the vessel electric
of them is to use the hydrogen internal combustion engine consumers and the rest is used for electric propulsion motors.
connected to the propeller via gearbox, and another one is a There are two main types of gas turbines used in the marine
modern arrangement, by generating electricity by alternators field; the aero-derivative gas turbines and the industrial gas
to drive electric motors coupled to the propellers. Each turbines. Both of them are mechanical drive gas turbines
arrangement has its advantages and disadvantages according where a shaft rotates to drive a load, the other type of gas
to the field of usage. Figures 8 and 9 show these turbines is the jet gas turbines used in aircrafts.
arrangements. The major disadvantage of gas turbines in the marine field
is their low ability to work on heavy fuels since most of the
2.1.4 Gas turbine power plants
marine gas turbines are of the aero-derivative types derived
The gas turbine can be regarded as a natural development
from aircraft industry. Only few gas turbines are available
for the steam turbine, this is because both of them extracts
now with the ability to burn heavy fuels, those engines are
work from a high energy flow; high pressure and temperature
derived from industrial heavy duty gas turbines working
steam for the steam turbine and high pressure and temperature
basically on heavy fuels in the land based applications. One of
combustion gases for the gas turbine.
the most recent examples is the Siemens SGT-500 with the
The concept of driving a turbine with hot gases was
dual spool split shaft configuration.
patented for the first time in 1791, the patent was granted for
For other marine gas turbines, the fuel used is either the
the Englishman John Barber, but the first design was the
marine gas oil (MGO) corresponding to ISO 8217 DMA
property of Dr. Franz Stolz in 1872. The first true gas turbine
grade or the JP5 jet fuel (Harrington, 1992).
able to produce enough power than its needs for the
The most used gas turbine in the marine field either
compressor was built in 1903 by the Norwegian Agidius
commercial or military is the GE LM2500 with more than
Elling, and in 1930 Sir Frank Whittle used the work of
800 engines in service in 1996. Marine gas turbines are
Agidius Elling to develop the principle of jet propulsion
available up to 50 MW but in discrete levels according to the
(Naval Forces, 2003).
available models. And they are provided in an acoustic
The first vessel to be powered by gas turbine was the Royal
enclosure with dimensions usually near the standard
Navy Motor Gun Boat MGB 509 converted in 1947
containers size. They are directly coupled to the propeller
(Giampaolo, 2006). Since then the gas turbine was very
through gearboxes but in the recent configurations electric
successful in the naval field with thousands of gas turbines
drives were chosen for the passenger ferries and cruise liners
used for the propulsion of frigates, destroyers, corvettes, etc.
market. Astern motion is unavailable through the engine itself
The first gas turbine used for the commercial fleet was in
necessitating either a controllable pitch propeller or reversible
1949 onboard the oil tanker Auris, many designs for gas
gearbox and in the electric configurations the electric motor
turbine powered commercial vessels didn’t see the light due to
provides the astern motion (El-Gohary, 2012).
the dramatic 1970’s oil crisis, the gas turbines of this age were
not able to run on lower and cheaper fuel grades. 2.1.5 Hydrogen gas turbine
Nowadays, the gas turbines found the success in two The basic design of hydrogen gas turbine follows the same
categories of commercial vessels, both relying on passengers; simple steps as the ordinary gas turbines. It has been
the fast ferries and the cruise liners. Since the year 2000, demonstrated in this paper that a marine gas turbine running
many vessels were powered by gas turbines, but most of them on gaseous hydrogen can introduce a good alternative for
use the gas turbine in a combined configuration to achieve a ordinary marine power plants as no special technologies are
more feasible and flexible propulsion solution due to the high needed and good performance can be achieved.
fuel consumption of gas turbines, these combined For this type of engines, the challenge is in the adoption of
configurations include the combined diesel and gas (CODAG) the new type of fuel for waterborne vehicles and also the
where the required power is produced by both diesel engines difference between the properties of hydrogen and those of
and gas turbines at the same time and at part load only one other types of fuels. One of these properties includes the
type of engines is operated according to the required power, combustion characteristics which are wide different than those
the combined diesel or gas (CODOG) where the vessel is of ordinary fuels. This may be overcome by using a mixture
required at different power schemes and then only one type of of hydrogen with other types of fuels like natural gas.
engines is operated and this configuration is usual in navy Table 1 compares the main characteristics of the above
vessels, the combined gas and steam (COGAS) where the mentioned types of marine power plants; the steam turbines,
exhaust of the gas turbine is used to provide enough heat for diesel engines and gas turbines while Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 give
steam generation that is used in small steam cycle, and the a comparison between diesel engines and gas turbines for
recent combined diesel electric and gas (CODLAG) where specific fuel consumption and weight respectively.
diesel engines and gas turbines are used for electric power
Journal of Marine Science and Application (2013) 12: 219-227 225

Table 1 Comparison for the main aspects of each type of power plants
Items Steam Low speed Medium High speed Aero-derivati
turbines diesel speed diesel diesel ve gas turbine
Power range
Up to 60000 3000-100000 1000-25000 Up to 4000 Up to 50000
/kW
Most Naval units
LNG and oil Naval vessels
Applications commercial and general Small units
tankers and ferries
vessels cargo
Lowest in Lowest at
Cost high highest Fairly high
power range high power
Fuel heavy heavy intermediate light light
SFC
260-360 160-180 165-210 200-250 210-400
/(g·kWh-1)
Weight Moderate highest moderate low lowest

cell developed in General Electric. The first commercial use

was in the 60’s NASA Gemini space program. Another key
development was the introduction of a 5 kW stationary fuel
cell by the British engineer Francis Thomas Bacon in 1959,
his design was licensed a year later for the US space program.
Currently, more and more fuel cell manufacturers enter the
market each day; the list includes Ballard, Hydrogenics and
Siemens from Germany, United technologies from Belgium
and Plug Power from the USA.

2.2.2 Types and applications

All fuel cells share a common structure of anode, cathode
Fig. 10 Specific fuel consumption comparison of gas
and an electrolyte in between. The main difference between
turbines and diesel engines
different types lies in the type of materials used for the device
components.
Only five types are the dominant types and the others are
variations of the main five. The five types are: Proton
Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), Alkaline Fuel Cell
(AFC), Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC), Molten Carbonate
Fuel Cell (MCFC) and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC).
As a definition, the fuel cell is an electrochemical device
that converts the chemical energy in the fuel to electric energy.
The difference between fuel cells and ordinary batteries is that
fuel cells can run almost forever if the supply of fuel is not
interrupted. The basic fuel of fuel cells is the hydrogen gas
Fig. 11 Weight comparison of gas turbines and diesel reacting with the atmospheric oxygen producing electricity,
engines
water and heat as a reverse operation for the water
2.2 Overview of fuel cell technologies electrolysis.
2.2.1 History of fuel cells The fuel is not necessarily gaseous hydrogen; compounds
It was in January 1839 that the first traces of fuel cells including hydrogen may be used like hydrocarbons and
appeared when the German chemist Christian Friedrich alcohols.
Schönbein wrote an article in one of the scientific magazines Figure 12 shows the essential components of fuel cells; the
of that time about his discovery; ozone and the reaction of anode where the fuel enters the system, the electrolyte
hydrogen and oxygen. One month later, the Welsh scientist Sir responsible for the passage of ions between the two electrodes
William Robert Grove documented his observations based on and the cathode where the oxidant enters the system.
Schönbein work and later introduced his first fuel cell model The main application for fuel cells according to their
under the name of ‘gas voltaic battery (Woodyard, 2004). nature as electrochemical device is the electric generation.
It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the basic design of This application is used everywhere; in stationary as well as
fuel cells was developed. The major development occurred mobile applications in land vehicles, marine vehicles or
between 1955 and 1958 leading to the Grubb-Niedrach fuel even spacecrafts. But not all types of fuel cells can be used
in all applications; some are more suitable for a specific
226 M.Morsy El-Gohary. Overview of Past, Present and Future Marine Power Plants

application than the others. the standby and mobilization power levels and by diesel
engines for the pulling/pushing operations.
DetNorskVeritas, MTU, Wärtsilä and others are the
members for a project called Fellowship to develop fuel
cells intended solely for the marine use. Other classification
societies are working on issuing general guidelines for the
use of fuel cells onboard ships. Another project called
Zemship (Zero emissions ship) is conducted by
Germanischer Lloyd, Linde–Group and Proton motor to
develop a fuel cell powered passenger ship.
Fuel cells, however, are not new to the marine sector,
navies around the world used fuel cells for the quiet supply
Fig. 12 Schematic of an individual fuel cell
of power for submarines for years. Siemens in Germany
provided fuel cell units for submarines as well as small
For the marine field, fuel cells are intended to provide the auxiliary power units for naval vessels. One of the
power for propulsion in small units or auxiliary power for successful examples is the type 212 German submarines.
large units. Many development projects are in place Table 2-2 gives a comparison between the main
currently; one of them is the Hydrogen Hybrid Harbor Tug characteristics of the different types of fuel cells.
in The Netherlands which will be operated by fuel cells for
Table 2 – Comparison of fuel cell types
Temperature
Fuel cell type Electrolyte Output /kW Efficiency /% Applications
range /°C
Backup power
PEMFC Solid organic polymer 50-100 <1-250 25-58 Small distributed generation
Transportation
Aqueous solution of Military
AFC 90-100 10-100 60
potassium hydroxide Space

PAFC Liquid phosphoric acid 150-200 50-1000 >40 Distributed generation

Liquid solution of
MCFC lithium, sodium and/or 600-700 <1-1000 45-47 Large distributed generation
potassium carbonates
Yttria stabilized Auxiliary power
SOFC 600-1000 <1-3000 35-43
zirconia Large distributed generation

3 Conclusions recommended to assess the performance of the turbine under

these two cases.
The use of steam turbines once favored is no longer favored Apart from all technical advantages the gas turbines have
for newly built due to the system complexity and low over the diesel engines, another key difference exists which is
efficiency. Even the LNG sector is searching for new the emission levels, the gas turbines have lower emission
propulsion schemes to be installed to eliminate the need for levels than diesel engines making them more friendly to the
the old fashioned power plants. This leaves the competition environment. The fuel cells remain the best when the
playground wide-open to the diesel and gas turbines. Nobody environment is considered but they are not ready enough to
can precisely decide which method is the best however, the compete as a main propulsion prime mover yet.
gas turbines have more advantages, but the diesel engine is Fuel cells are intended to provide the power for propulsion
more reliable, and has good maintainability characteristics. in small units or auxiliary power for large units for the marine
The world is full of technicians able to work with diesel field which uses hydrogen and natural gas as a fuel.
engines, and its efficiency is higher than gas turbines.
Marine turbines use marine diesel oil as fuel, and in order 4 Recommendations
to move a step closer to the future, new fuel resources must be
chosen in efforts for the fueling of marine turbines to have a The recommendations for a better future of the marine
clean and efficient shipping industry. The natural gas and the power plants can be concluded in the following points:
hydrogen resources are the two candidates for this operation; 1) Increase the interest of ship owners and designers in the gas
the natural gas for the short term development and the turbine market especially for the small and medium sized
hydrogen for the long term development. It has been vessels where high shaft speeds will not require large
 Journal of Marine Science and Application (2013) 12: 219-227 227

reduction ratios. Papagiannakis R, Hountalas D (2005). Combustion and exhaust

2) Promote the use of natural gas in the marine transportation emission characteristics of a dual fuel compression ignition
sector to have a better environment until the hydrogen is engine operated with pilot diesel fuel and natural gas. Energy
Conversion and Management, 24, 279-293.
ready to be used on a large scale.
Sattler G (2000). Fuel cells going on board. Journal of Power
3) New research programs are needed to find efficient Sources, 86, 61-67.
solutions for the problems associated with the application Shlyakhin P (2005). Steam turbines: Theory and design. Foreign
of hydrogen in marine power plants, either in internal Language Publishing House, Moscow.
combustion engines or in fuel cells. Tomczak HJ, Benelli G, Carrai L, Cecchini D (2002). Investigation
of a gas turbine combustion system fired with mixtures of
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Author biography
performance parameters and artificial intelligent emission
prediction of hydrogen powered car. International Journal of M. Morsy Elgohary was born in 1969. He holds
Hydrogen Energy, 33, 3837-3846. PhD in diesel engines (2004) from Hannover
Knothe G (2001). Historical perspectives on vegetable oil-based University, Germany and he has more than 30
academic papers. He is an associated professor in
diesel fuels. American Oil Chemists’ Society, Inform, 12,
marine engineering department at Alexandria
1103-1107. University and works as a head of Marine
Lamb T (2004). Ship Design and Construction, SNAME. Engineering Department King Abdulaziz
Ma J, Su YK, Zhou YC, Zhang ZL (2003). Simulation and University Saudi Arabia tell now. His current
prediction on the performance of a vehicle’s hydrogen engine. research interests are green ship energy, marine
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 28(1), 77-83. diesel engines, marine alternative fuels and energy
Naval Forces (2003). The Meko Shipyard, p-21, Mönch Publishing conservation onboard ships.
Group, special issue 2003

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