What is hybrid ship energy management?

After addressing the design elements of hybrid propulsion system structures and energy storage capacity configuration, the discussion advances to the operation phase of the EMS. Hybrid ship energy management involves several challenges in dealing with multiple energy forms, i.e., electrical, chemical, and mechanical energy (Jaurola et al., 2019).

What is the research focus of ship energy management?

The synthesis of background information and literature analysis indicates that the research focus of ship energy management centers around optimizing ship propulsion systems and efficient EMS. In particular, a considerable research gap for dynamic traffic modeling and real-time control is identified (Tan et al., 2022).

What is the future development direction of ship energy management systems?

The future development direction of ship energy management systems is proposed. With the growing concerns over energy scarcity and environmental degradation, multi-energy hybrid propulsion systems are emerging as a vital innovation for the future of maritime transport.

What are thermal energy storage technologies?

Thermal energy storage technologies have been applied in many other fields, where balancing of mismatch between energy production and demand is required. Moreover, during last decades a large amount of research projects have been founded to develop new and more efficient TES systems at different temperature levels.

How is the capacity of the storage tank optimized?

The capacity of the storage tank was optimized based on the distribution of the energy demand of the auxiliary systems during the port stays of the ship, evaluated during the 31 months of measurements ( Fig. 5.12 ). From this data, the estimated amount of thermal energy required in port between 200 and 300 GJ.

Are RL-based energy management strategies effective in hybrid ship energy management?

The analysis indicates that RL-based energy management strategies offer benefits like self-adaptation, online learning, and autonomous decision-making. However, current research on hybrid ship energy management using RL primarily utilizes discrete action values, leading to discretization errors.