RE: Uncharted waters17 Sep 2021 11:36
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While there is a lot of national attention for hydrogen and lithium-ion batteries for greening inland shipping, former inland shipping entrepreneur and developer Ton van Meegen of PortLiner from Huissen in Gelderland consciously opts for the flow battery, which allows an inland vessel to run on electrolyte.
In a flow battery, the energy is stored in electrolyte instead of in the currently commonly used lithium-ion cells. The flow battery is an invention that has been around for sixty years, but according to Van Meegen it is the current answer to the need for a profitable fuel for inland shipping. The flow battery on an inland vessel can be fully charged within 30 minutes, according to Van Meegen. He no longer believes in hydrogen.
"I did seriously consider it and it took years of research, just like lithium-ion batteries. But it simply won't be hydrogen. Hydrogen has an efficiency of only 30%. In addition, you need heavy tanks that can handle pressure of up to 700 bar. That requires expensive tanks and certification for ships, so substantial investments for inland skippers. "
Van Meegen outlines the enormous investments that the network of charging stations for electric inland vessels running on lithium-ion batteries alone would require. "Despite the fact that lithium-ion has a very good efficiency of 96%. You then have to charge a ship roughly every two days. That takes five to ten hours, so you cannot sail, but you can still take that for granted. However, you need approximately 3,600 charging points for that charging in the Netherlands. And if you are going to work with a swap system, so always have pre-charged batteries hoisted in your ship, which can make charging faster, that will even cost a multiple of the number of batteries required, plus an enormous infrastructure on shore. That will run into the billions. And don't forget that you need to replace those batteries every eight years. Then they are gone. And you are left with an enormous mountain of chemical waste. "
No need for replacement
The need for replacement does not apply to the flow battery, on which PortLiner is advised by the German Fraunhofer Institute, according to Van Meegen "the best supplier". "The flow battery also has a very good efficiency of 91%. And you only need the flow once, then you simply charge it every time. And that over and over again. You can also fully charge a flow battery, for 100%, and a lithium-ion battery cannot. Certainly not if you want to give it a longer lifespan. "
Van Meegen, together with 41 mainly Dutch suppliers, is currently building a demo vessel of 135 metres. That ship will be ready by mid-2020 and it is expected to be operational by the end of this year after a series of sea trials. In addition, Van Meegen is already building a series of flow inland vessels for charterers. According to him, this is also an answer to the future of inland shipping. "We deliver them complete with crew. Every year we plan four of these ships."
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