PhD position Power system control and energy management

The SH2IPDRIVE project develops zero emission power and propulsion solutions for ships based on hydrogen in a broad consortium across the Dutch maritime sector, from fleet owner to ship designer and from shipyard to start-up. In this project, Delft University of Technology performs applied and fundamental research into hydrogen storage in liquid organic carriers and metal hydrides, hydrogen bunkering, fuel cell systems, system integration, data collection and safety for ships. The researchers, consisting of 9 PhD positions, one postdoc position and an experienced supervision team of the M&TT and P&E department of the 3ME faculty, develop models, methodologies, algorithms and concept designs for hydrogen power and propulsion systems for ships.

This project focusses on the control of the the modern power systems and the energy management of ships. The energy for the system is supplied by fuel cells. The loads depend on the ship type and consist of propulsion, dynamic positioning, hotel loads, cranes, and dredging processes. In most cases, energy storage in batteries and/or supercapacitors is necessary, because the combustion engines and the fuel cells cannot deliver the dynamic loads required for these applications.

The basic research questions is: How to develop the power system control and the energy management system in such a way that perfomance is optimised?

Subquestions include:

• What are the requirements of the power system control and energy management?
• How can we control the power and propulsion system in such a way that it meets the dynamic requirements?
• How do we minimize energy consumption without compromising performance?
• How do we minimize degradation of batteries and fuel cells without compromising performance?

This work will be done in close collaboration with MARIN, where they are modeling, designing and building a zero-emission laboratory.

You will be working in the Marine Engineering group of the Ship Design, Production and Operation section at the Maritime and Transport Technology department. In addition, you will be working closely with other researchers working within MENENS and other related topics and projects at TU Delft partner institutions and companies.