Zero-emission CTV

In collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Afairs and Climate, the Innovation Council of the Dutch Maritime Network organises the annual Maritime Innovation Impuls Projects (MIIP). One of this year’s projects that is granted a subsidy is the study for a zero-emission foiling crew tender vessel.

The goal of MIIP is to fnancially support the maritime industry in the development of new knowledge or products. With the support, for example a frst (feasibility) study can be conducted, or the frst steps towards product development can be taken. Projects that are looking for a MIIP subsidy should ft within the four themes of the Dutch Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC): Towards Zero Emissions, Digital & Autonomous Shipping, Safety &

Security, and Blue Growth. All projects are judged on their proposed contribution to the realisation of one of the themes’ goals. Also important are for example the projects’ perspective to the future, and the possible continuing path combined with the quality of the project’s partnership.

This year, a subsidy in the theme ‘Towards Zero Emissions’ was granted to Flying Fish, for a study for a zeroemission crew tender vessel. Foils can help fast and light vessels, such as CTVs to reduce up to 80% of energy. This way, zero-emission sailing at sea is feasible. Flying Fish already developed several end-to-end hydrofoil boats, such as the TU Delft Solar Boat and the Hydrofoil Education and Research Platform that is used for testing and research at Delft Technical University. The company used its theoretical understanding of foiling to develop HOST (Hydrofoil Optimisation and Simulation Tool). With HOST, realtime foiling simulations for optimisation of the design can be performed. In 2018, one of the founders of Flying Fish won a Maritime Designer Award for the proposal and application of a foil-design method for small vessels.

From a sustainable perspective, the relevance of foils for seagoing CTVs and other vessels has grown, mainly because of the growing number of ofshore wind farms. Unfortunately, no foiling system for CTVs exists on the market. The biggest challenge in this lies in the fact that the knowledge at knowledge institutes and the experience of ship builders do not match. This is why it is difcult to make a proper technical and economic cost/beneft estimation for a foiling vessel at sea. In other words, a practical design approach to cover the project risks is missing and now the MIIP project aims at solving this missing link.

Flying Fish is talking to various ship owners to further work out the development roadmap for foils used on CTVs. The MIIP study is important for this because the aim is to answer the following questions: what will a practical hydrofoil design method look like for CTVs and other fast seagoing vessels, and what technical, economical, and planning budgets should be considered? In the project, Flying Fish will focus on

For the project the below mentioned targets are set: developing a system layout of hydrofoil vessels, drawing up user demands, and the simulations of the performances of foils. MARIN will act as a sounding board for this. Flying Fish will consult CTV users, such as Eneco, RWE, and Shell, and ship owners for input. Apart from this, the company works together with project partner C-Job to realise a design method that fts best with market demand and practical ship building. According to Gijsbert van Marrewijk, Co-founder of Flying Fish, the company does not aim at developing completely new vessels. “We aim at hydrofoil systems that can be used on designs of ship builders. By ofering foils to ship builders, they can easily make their designs more sustainable. Acting as a supplier of foils instead of complete vessel designs, we can contribute more easily to the reduction of emissions of the market”, Mr Van Marrewijk says. He continues, “On our website, visitors can fnd out themselves how much energy can be saved with our foiling system. This can be valuable for gaining insights in how to make the feet more sustainable!” i.

1 Describe the three most important design elements for foiling CTVs based on discussions with designers, ship owners, and users.

2 Identify the design space of the vessel based on the requirements of CTV users and the physical criteria of the vessel. For this, a reference vessel is chosen to test various design methods and simulations. This will result in a reference vessel design. Also, a render of this design will be made by C-Job to visualise the design and have it judged by the market.

3 Formulate a budget model in which the technical feasibility per sub system is described, as well as the time and cost estimation for the development, the construction and the operation of the reference CTV. The output will be a cost-model that can be applied in new projects.

4 Further work out so-called ‘technology gaps’ that afect the time or cost of development. This will result in an analysis of the options to solve these gaps with new technologies or alternative designs.

The project will be successful when all targets are met and the designers, ship builders, vessel owners, investors, and users indicate that they are more capable of giving an innovative foiling project a well-founded ‘Go’. The project started in March 2023 and will run until February 2024.