Life in the ‘deep freeze’!
Bowman CHP heat exchangers provide vital heating for the Halley VI Antarctic research station.
Essential reading for keeping cool
Bowman publish a new brochure on cooling electric and hybrid marine propulsion systems.
In just a few years, electric and hybrid propulsion has gone from an industry in its infancy, to being adopted as a mainstream propulsion option by many sectors of the marine industry.
Whilst this increasing level of acceptance is often driven by emissions legislation in many parts of the world, there are also numerous operational benefits beyond the obvious environmental issues.
For example, water taxis and other watercraft used on lakes or inland waterways, not only benefit from reduced CO2 emissions, but also reduced noise pollution, too. Likewise, in sport fishing, where full power is required to get out to the fishing grounds, but very low power is used during fishing operations such as ‘trolling’, with a hybrid system, power can be switched from the main engine to electric propulsion, enabling the vessel to be operated much more efficiently.
As the industry has developed, it’s encouraging to see that many early electric or hybrid propulsion concepts have now become reality, as demand for these products gathers momentum.
However, one issue that remains key to its success is cooling.
It is estimated that 70% of all vessels will require cooling for the electric motor and perhaps all vessels will require cooling for the batteries and associated electrical control equipment.
The importance of cooling electrical components cannot be overemphasised as a universal principle of electronics states that a 10 °C (50 °F) lower temperature will double the life expectancy of an electrical component.
During the ‘Electric & Hybrid Propulsion World Expo’ in June 2019, the level of interest in cooling was very high and throughout the show, Bowman’s stand was kept busy with visitors looking for advice on cooling not only the electric motors and battery packs, but also the ancillary equipment, including AC-DC converters, DC-DC converters, on-board chargers, plus hybrid control units, combined electric motor/generator and engine-powered generators.
This has led Bowman to produce a new technical brochure covering its range of shell and tube heat exchangers for cooling electric and hybrid systems. With over 40 heat exchangers listed in the brochure, offering heat dissipation from 3 kW up to 701 kW, this is one of the most comprehensive ranges currently available. In addition to giving performance, specification and dimensional details, the brochure also provides information on Bowman’s own computer-aided product selection, which enables the company to recommend the most appropriate heat exchanger for a customer’s requirements.
With over 80 years’ experience of providing efficient heat exchangers to the marine industry, Bowman is ideally placed to recommend the most effective cooling solutions for electric or hybrid propulsion systems.
Copies of the brochure are freely available and can either be downloaded from ej-bowman.com or if a printed copy is preferred, by contacting Bowman directly on +44 (0)121 359 5401, or emailing [email protected].
