Modelization of hybrid systems with hydrogen and renewable energy oriented to electric propulsion in sailboats

• A conceptual design of electric sailboat with renewable energies is presented.
• Renewable energies (eolic, solar and hydro) are stored as hydrogen.
• Grid energy is stored in batteries when sailboat remains at port.
• Mathematical models for each system were shown.
• A hybrid control strategy to manage all energy flows was developed.

This paper presents a conceptual model of a hybrid electric sailboat in which energy from electric grid is stored in batteries and energy from renewable energies (eolic, solar and hydro) is stored as hydrogen. The main objective of this model is to study the viability of electrifying traditional sailboats with internal combustion engines into hybrid systems with batteries and fuel cell. The most important advantage of this design is the possibility to reduce up to zero emissions of traditional sailboat. Conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen is performed through an electrolyzer and post conversion to energy is carried out by a fuel cell. The fuel cell with the batteries forms the hybrid system (batteries-fuel cell) for propulsion electrical energy supply. In order to model the boat dynamic and energy systems, modular mathematical models were developed under Matlab®-Simulink®, using a fixed-step solver for the simulation of global model. A simulated logic controller manages the global model. In this paper, many models have been used: some of them are based in literature models and others were developed from experimental data. A control strategy has also been developed to manage energy flows and then it has been embedded to Matlab® language. The global model permits test the performance of the sailboat.