On Friday the 5 June, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) hosted a webinar on the ‘Maritime Applications for Batteries,’ discussing the current state of battery-electric propulsion in the maritime sector. Batteries can reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency, and enhance performance – particularly on short sea routes, which our panel came together to provide insight on.

Our panel was made up of Head of R&D, Rauma Marine Constructions, Teemu Kyläkallio, Principal of Business Development at The Faraday Institution, Jonathan Leong, Principal Marine Director at ICS, John Stawpert, and CEO of Wightlink Katy Taylor. This panel was moderated by CEO and Founder of Intent Communications, Namrata Nadkarni.

The Webinar opened with an introduction of our speakers, before John Stawpert provided an overview of batteries as they are emerging as a vital enabler to achieve decarbonisation goals in maritime. He contextualised why they are seen as cleaner, smarter, and more efficient options in maritime technology, whilst exploring how despite their potential, the challenges have been acting as a barrier to adoption. The webinar set out to discuss the ways in which these challenges can be overcome, as well as the future of battery technology.

Namrata firstly addressed Teemu, asking him about his perspective of marine electrification as a shipbuilder and retrofitter. He explained that Finland is a place which is already researching fully electric vessels, and we will hopefully see these research projects come to fruition in the next few years or so. He explained that there is no ‘silver bullet’ in marine electrification, but there are a variety of opportunities which can support bringing these emissions down. It is just a matter of using batteries in the correct way to find a solution for the challenge at hand.

Johnathan Leong was asked about the opportunities and challenges for battery electrification, to which he gave a comprehensive presentation. He began with explaining the significance, not just in trade, but the potential contribution for climate change, as maritime is responsible for 8% of the global carbon emissions, and 3% of the UK’s. The global market for alternative fuel production technologies for maritime fuels could be work £8-11 billion by 2025 as demand for oil-based fuel is expected to decline (from 90% to 12% by 2050). This illustrates the sheer potential for batteries to emerge as an alternative maritime technology, particularly for short-sea routes. Despite this significance, he noted that the primary challenges for maritime would be to ensure the batteries are optimised for better performance, i.e., fast charging, extended battery life, safer, etc, and that the batteries are fit for purpose to meet different transport needs.

Johnathan proceeded to explain where batteries fit in the maritime sector. The two main areas are on board and port infrastructure. On board, batteries are a multirole technology, helping with noise and emission reduction and reducing fuel consumption, with a high-efficiency powertrain. Within port infrastructure, there is opportunity with ship/cold ironing, mixed-fuel sources in future ports, the electrification of the wider port networks, such as cranes and forklifts, and offshore electrification, with tugs and support vehicles. He detailed the commercially available cell chemistries which are fit-for-purpose for these maritime applications, including Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP), Lithium Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC), and Lithium Titanate Oxide (LTO).

He concluded his presentation with outlining the overall opportunities and limitations. The primary benefit remains the high-powertrain efficiency (emission, fuel consumption, and maintenance). Limitations include the gravimetric energy density/cycle life being limited to short range propulsion or hybrid medium-length journeys, volumetric energy density causing space constraints, environmental conditions such as saltwater immersion/exposure and sand, and battery safety. However, the potential of future battery development is strong, including, increased utilisation, safety/thermal runway improvements, increased energy density for longer range and reduced volume, and power trade-off improvements.

After Johnathan’s presentation wrapped up, Namrata turned to Katy. As she has real life operator experience with the Isle of Wight fleet, Katy was asked to share the positive and challenging aspects of electrification. She began with an overview of Wightlink, detailing their 45,000 sailings a year and their carbon emissions which they are aiming to reduce. She highlighted the ‘Victoria of Wight’ which is Wightlink’s current hybrid ferry, with 20% lower carbon emissions. The ferry was introduced in 2018 and have saved around 6000 tonnes of carbon in 8 years. Their ambition is to have zero emissions and all electric ferry operations using fast shore charging, but fast chargers will be needed at both ends of the trip presenting challenging involving insufficient grid capacity, power capacity, and battery storage, with a large additional cost. Whilst this ambition is challenging to achieve, there has been green progress so far. For example, carbon emissions have been reduced by 35% since 2007 and EV charging is available at three of their ports.

Following Katy’s practical insights, the discussion returned to Teemu, who discussed the weight issue with batteries. As they are heavy, there needs to be a sacrifice of something on board. However, he explained that this can be done without much, if any, hindrance to ship operations. He gave an example from Finland where a freshwater tank was sacrificed to install batteries, which didn’t see any issues for the operations. Therefore, the opportunity for trade-off is there.

The next portion of the webinar was the Q&A, where we were delighted to see many questions already submitted from those attending. The first question asked about whether batteries can effectively have an impact on CCI for older vessels, i.e., more than 15 years old. Teemu explained that this really depends on a case-by-case basis. For example, taking an LNG vessel in European waters and retrofitting even a small battery to optimise gas producing engines can make a lot of sense to bring down the emissions and operation cost. It mainly depends on the fuel and power propulsion. Johnathan and Katy both provided insight on the economic side, with Johnathan explaining that you probably wouldn’t get a return on investment. Therefore, in the short-term, it would not be beneficial enough. Katy shared that retrofitting is a cost challenge, and it all depends on whether the trade-off is economically justifiable.

The next question was directed at Katy who already has experience with managing a battery power vessel. She was asked how fire is managed from installing batteries. She used the case study of ‘Victoria’ when answering the question, informing the panel about the safety mechanisms that were built in. For example, there is a battery management system which can manage factors such as the temperature of the battery. She stated that they have never had any issues with carrying the battery when it is installed, however there have been reports of complications arising when carrying electric cars on board, therefore the safety considerations are a necessity.

The final question flipped to shoreside and asked if there are sufficient conversations happening to ensure that there is alignment for battery power in maritime. Katy answered, explaining that it has taken a long time for the government to look at battery capacity in ports. But now it is happening, the capacity isn’t there yet, and she thinks it will take a longer time than other technologies. She illustrated this through saying that if they wanted to order an electric ship today, the port capacity probably wouldn’t be available for another decade.

Namrata brought the webinar to a close as it reached the final few minutes. As standard in our ICS webinars, each panellist was asked to provide their key points for the audience to takeaway. Johnathan began, with his perspective from a battery researcher. With batteries being in such a fast-moving field, there is a unique opportunity present in the maritime sector. Teemu followed, stating there is huge potential and opportunity, but it needs more research to see all these opportunities and make sure that we make the best decision on how to implement battery powered ships. Katy shared that the infrastructure to support decarbonisation choices for vessels and the economics are not compelling enough at the moment. It needs to stack up economically to emerge as a priority challenge. Finally, John wrapped up with gratitude for the other speakers for sharing their unique perspectives on the opportunities and potential. He is particularly curious about the potential knock-on effects for aspects such as underwater radiated noise, and the webinar has fuelled more questions for him to explore on the topic.