MBF Featured in Innovate UK Business Connect - The Battery Caffe Podcast

In the episode “Batteries in Maritime”, MBF director alongside other experts, explored the role of batteries in the maritime sector, covering key topics such as the current landscape for decarbonization, battery integration, and the future of zero-emission vessels. Speaking on the of role of battery technologies in delivering net zero in the sector, Syb ten Cate Hoedemaker responded,

“There are actually many different ways that batteries can be used on board ships, and especially a lot of different ways in hybrid applications. So, in a recent paper that we published together with CIMAC, we defined several hybrid applications where batteries are used to optimize the usage of internal combustion engines or fuel cells to reduce fuel consumption or emissions or operational costs.

We also define several dynamic applications where batteries are used to assist internal combustion engines or fuel cells again, in various operational modes, to improve their dynamic response behavior. So, examples of this for the hybrid applications are load leveling, cyclic operations or spinning reserve. Examples of the dynamic applications are, for instance, boost function or a dynamic load transition and peak shaping, so many different ways of how you can use batteries onboard ships.

Some applications have more potential on specific ships than on others. So, it is the challenge to determine which combination of applications have the best result for your ship, and what type of size and battery performs best for that combination of applications. That's where we're seeing that the maritime industry is making a lot of progress in trying to understand what those different use cases are and how to select the right battery to go with that recipe”.