The all electric ship concept for a chemical tanker

The vast majority of today's ships use a conventional diesel-mechanical propulsion configuration. In this configuration a diesel engine mechanically powers the propellers through reduction gears. Other non-propulsion systems have their own power sources, in general diesel driven auxiliary generating sets. For these traditional configured ships this results in independent power sources for propulsion and other consumers. Disadvantages could be high installed power and inefficient use of space. An all-electric ship concept (AES) makes use of electric propulsion drives. The main idea behind such as concept is that main propulsion generator sets can be used as a source of power for other functions when their full output is not required for propulsion power. Instead of several independent power sources the all-electric ship thus has one integral energy system. This configuration offers a number of important advantages that have the potential of outweighing the inherently higher first cost and the higher transmission losses of such systems, when compared with other conventional types of propulsions drive alternatives. The electrical connection between the generator and the propulsion motor provides a freedom of arrangement not offered in a mechanical drive system. At this time the most common prime mover for the all-electric ship is the diesel-generator. In this study also a gas turbine power plant will be investigated. This gas turbine power plant uses organic Rankine technology to recover waste heat in the flue gases. The performance of the nonrecuperated gas turbines is improved significantly when such a top cycle is used...Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringMarine and Transport TechnologyShip Design, Production and OperationDMS 03/0