Energy Management of a Zero-Emission Hybrid FC/Battery/Ultracapacitor Ship Using Model Predictive Control

Zero-emission electric ships are an important area of focus in the maritime industry due to the increasing environmental concerns worldwide. In a hybrid fuel cell (FC)/ battery/ ultra-capacitor(UC) ship, all the required power for propulsion and auxiliaries comes from the storage system or the FC without the need for an internal combustion engine, enabling zero carbon operations. One of the main challenges of the operation management of a hybrid ship is the efficient coordination of various components to optimize resource utilization. In this paper, an energy management system (EMS) based on nonlinear model predictive control is developed for a hybrid FC/Battery/UC ship. The goal is to cover the ship’s electrical load during the optimization horizon by splitting the required power between the available onboard resources optimally.