Date of Publication :13th April 2023

Abstract: Need for energy recuperation and consumption optimization in propulsion systems has become more and more important out of several reasons. Most obvious one is lowering fossil fuel consumption in order to lower transport prices. However, another good reason is to lower emission of greenhouse gases in order to decrease pollution of earth’s atmosphere. As first solution to this problem, hybrid energy systems emerged. Those systems are using diesel-electrical propulsion systems which are usually equipped with energy storage devices, such as batteries. Source of energy for such systems can be interchanged during travel. Actual problem with this kind of systems is recharging of batteries which can be done on-grid or off-grid. Interesting part for us is off-grid recharging. This can be done by implementing motor-generators in hybrid system which can reverse energy flow if preconditions are met. On ground vehicles energy recuperation can be done by restoring kinetic energy of vehicle while breaking or descending while maintaining velocity. On maritime vehicles this can be achieved by usage of wind assisted ships. Those ships can use wind energy to lower fossil fuel consumption, or in some cases even use exceeding wind power to recharge batteries. Another way for recharging batteries is by using solar energy to charge batteries. Another way to lower energy consumption is by using route optimization. This is basically done by choosing routes that usually have higher wind speeds and sea currents that blow and flow in supporting way according to ships trajectory. This paper will more closely go into problem of route optimization by using physical and mathematical model of propulsion system loads on given trajectory.

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