What is Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO)? What is serial electric hybrid?
former design engineer building offshore wind turbines. “But Ortomarine has always wanted to do a comparative test to provide the most objective comparison of the different designs.”
Paul Sumpner continues: “The ‘Electric Propulsion Trials Event’ was an attempt to record real life data on power consumption, electric engine performance, propeller thrust, generator usage/ efficiency, solar yield and sound levels.
“In addition, one of the diesel boats and one of the diesel generators on a serial-hybrid was fuelled with Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel, supplied by Crown Oil, which claims to reduce CO2 greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90%, can be stored for 10 years, is immune to diesel bug and can be a drop-in replacement for red diesel.”
There were three diesel boats: the first Here We Go Again (58.5ft, Beta Marine 43) was the benchmark boat (and actually the first private boat that Ortomarine ever built) and is owned by Roy Smith, whose brief was to cruise normally.
Another diesel engined boat, Oyster Moon (58.5ft, Beta Marine 43hp Greenline) was helmed by Ortomarine’s Paul Weaver, running with HVO in the fuel tank.
The third, Mokoro, (60.5ft, Beta Marine 43 keel-cooled) owned by Guy and Sally Campbell was required to cruise as conservatively as possible – switching off the engine in locks and so forth.
Next were the parallel hybrid boats. These have both a diesel and an electric engine, either of which can propel the boat (see panel over the page).
The first of these was Stannator (58.5ft, Beta Marine 50, Hybrid Marine 10kW WC/ EM) owned by Andrew Ford.
The other was Mordiford Dragon (60ft, Beta Marine 50, Hybrid Marine 10kW WC/ EM) owned by Rob and Karen Barker.
And finally the serial hybrids. Serial hybrids have electric engines turning their props with diesel generators that recharge the batteries when renewables or shore-power is insufficient.
They included Phil and Mel Woods’
HVO is synthesised from vegetable oils or animal fats using a specialist hydrotreatment process and its purity allows it to significantly reduce harmful emissions when used in diesel engines through muchimproved burning efficiency. It’s a second-generation synthetic renewable diesel alternative that eliminates up to 90% of net CO2 and significantly reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx), particulate matter and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. HVO can be used as a drop-in alternative to fossil diesel, meeting EN 15940 standards and Fuel Quality Directive 2009/30/EC Annex II. There’s no need to modify existing infrastructure – you can simply top up and go. crownoil.co.uk
In a serial hybrid a single electric engine drives the propshaft, but if the batteries start to get low, a small and efficient diesel generator can be started that will charge the batteries while still underway. With a good solar set-up (1,200W or more), the need to run the generator in summer months is rare and in the autumn/winter, a night or two on a visitor mooring in a marina, on shore power, will soon top up the batteries.
Currently, it is just not possible to completely eliminate the use of diesel on a continuously cruising narrowboat. So the choice came down to the two hybrid solutions of which the Serial Electric Hybrid had some advantages: • Quieter and more practical generator charging
• When diesel is used for charging, more efficient, fixed
rpm generator
• Wider choice of electric engine manufacturers