The European SEABAT project has held its second general assembly

The European SEABAT project has held its second general assembly

SEABAT is developing a modular, hybrid maritime battery concept that is totally electric, to substantially reduce the costs of the large aquatic batteries of more than 1MWh.

Research staff of the Energy Storage group of Mondragon Goi Eskola Politeknikoa will take part in the consortium that is developing the SEABAT European project. The project is financed by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Commission and is carrying out 15 entities of 8 European countries.

After a six-month long journey, representatives of the various entities have held the second General Assembly (both in virtual format) to share the progress of the project and the results obtained:

• Workpackage 1 is now complete.
• Workpackage 2 will be completed soon.
• Workpackage 3 has already begun, in which they are designing a battery system and a method for sharing the different topologies.

The project is divided into eight work packages and the research staff of Mondragon Goi Eskola Politeknikoa is taking part in five of them, specifically, in the packages most associated with the design and development of the battery system and electronic power converters. In addition, the university will also take part in the final validation of the project.

The general meeting has also enabled us to define the tasks that we will soon be able to set in motion and the date and place of the next General Assembly: 4 February 2022 in Belgium.

The aim of the project:

The overall objective of SEABAT is to develop a fully electric hybrid ship concept based on the combination of high energy and high-powered modular batteries, novel concepts of converters with technological solutions derived from the automotive sector.

A modular approach will reduce the costs of the components (battery, converter) so that when designing the ships, use can be made of standard components in economies of scale and benefits derived from their low cost. The concept may be satisfactory for future generations of batteries and high-powered components that may have higher energy densities or be based on different chemicals.

Results expected:

Optimum hybrid modular solution for a fully-electric shop that reduces the footprint of the battery and reduces the oversizing (by up to 10 times at a maximum of 2 times).

• Validation of the 300 kWh system (test of the complete batteries system) in TRL 5, and virtual validation of the solution for 1 Mwh batteries and higher, using P-HiL tests of the 300 kWh system.
• The result will be a hybrid battery solution validated for capacities of 1 MWh and higher, a roadmap for approval and a strategy for standardisation for ferries and short distance maritime transport, among others.
• The solution will provide a total costing of ownership (TCO) of the maritime battery systems between 35 and 50% lower, including a CAPEX investment of 15 to 30%, 50% lower costs of integration in the shipyard and a 5% recovery of the investment costs at the end of the useful life of the ship.