With a $1.3 million assist in funding from the nation’s two biggest container ports, Foss Maritime of Seattle just announced it will construct the world’s first hybrid tugboat — a 5,000-hp vessel that displaces a significant portion of dirty diesel engines with giant battery packs that work in tandem to reduce fuel consumption; carbon, nitrogen oxide, and sulphur dioxide emissions; and noise.
As I’ve mentioned before, any forward step like this in the hidebound shipping business ought be considered a bold move. Germany’s Beluga Shipping this fall will unveil the world’s first hybrid container ship with a giant kite hoisted above its bow; and now the world’s fleet of tugboats will start making the slow switch to alternative fuels, too. Credit the new Clean Air Action Plan, implemented by the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for getting the idea off the ground.
According to Foss —which has been cranking out tugs since 1889 — its new hybrid rig "will look almost identical to its sister Dolphin-class tug boats … and will be powered by batteries coupled with diesel generators and feature a modified engine room accommodating two 670 horsepower battery packs and two 335 horsepower generators. Although the main engines in the hybrid tug will have lower horsepower than the existing Dolphin engines, overall the tug will have the same total horsepower as its sister tugs."
Most of the benefits of the hybrid will happen, oddly enough, when the vessel isn’t moving. According to Foss, tug boats expend nearly half their fuel when they’re simply idling in harbor. With the new rig, however, "instead of idling the main engines while in standby mode when alongside a customer vessel awaiting orders from the pilot, the hybrid tug will run on battery power with the main engines shut down."
Moe details from the Foss website here.
Original post by Jeffrey Davis and software by Elliott Back