Dimensioning of a zero-carbon ship propulsion system

Abstract

The ultimate goal of this thesis is to prove that is possible to substitute conventional engines working with fossil fuels in marine transportation by zero-carbon propulsion systems like the one explain here, a steam engine heated by the combustion of iron powder. The reason of this study is the situation that the world is facing with the current emissions that humans are emitting due to their life on this planet. As this situation is not sustainable, new alternatives of obtaining energy has to be designed, and one of the main activities that produce emissions is transportation. For overland trans-portation many alternatives have been considered, but for marine transportation not so much. The way of proving that the mentioned technology is feasible is to simulate a model and compare its results with a conventional engine with the same output characteristics. And the characteristics that have been compared are the mechanical ones, and the environmental ones also, to prove that it is a zero-carbon emissions technology. Once the results were obtained from the simulation, done in Matlab, it was proven that this technology was able to achieve 6202.5 kW as its equivalent conven-tional engine, proving that this engine can substitute conventional engines working with fossil, and the carbon-emissions are shut down if this technology reaches the replacement of conventional engines. So once the results prove this technology is feasible, the only step needed to go is to improve the technology required to recover the iron powder from the products of its combustion and making this fuel more available to the ports of the whole world.