A Case Study on the Variable Frequency Drive for Ship Engine Room Ventilation

Abstract

Increasing ship energy efficiency is essential to reducing fuel consumption and ship-based harmful emissions. In a ship’s engine room, there are a lot of electric motors, and their energy consumption is remarkable. The effective operation of these electric motors becomes significant when taking into account ship energy efficiency with regard to the effects on the environment and climate change. The electrical, mechanical, and operational efficiencies of electric motors can be improved with a variable frequency drive. In order to improve the ship’s overall energy efficiency, the electric motors used for engine room ventilation are examined in this paper using variable frequency drives for two different ambient temperatures. Energy consumption of the engine room ventilation fans is calculated and the change in the efficiency depending on the air temperature is analyzed. By using data from actual crude oil tanker ships, the outcomes are compared with those of the traditional system. The results indicate an energy consumption reduction of more than 80% is achievable by using VFD electric motors for engine room fans. The result corresponds to 153.279 kWh of energy instead of 613.116 kWh annually.