Electric & Hybrid magazine article: Water cooling for ESS

Water cooling for ESS article published in Electric & Hybrid Marine Technology International Magazine in April 2019.

 

Tough conditions at sea and lack of space are among the challenges faced by a new generation of energy storage systems for marine applications.

With the increasing electrification of marine vessels, batteries and energy storage systems (ESS) are becoming more common in the marine industry. Thus there is a growing need for effective, safe and east-to-use cooling systems. Adwatec’s robust, reliable liquid cooling solutions are now also available for batteries and energy storages.

Adwatec’s cooling system design is based on temperature balance, where the role of liquid cooling is critical. Water is an ideal cooling method for vessels due to its excellent cooling capacity and space efficiency.

“With liquid cooling the waste thermal energy can be reused for heating or transferred to sea water or to raw water system with a heat exchanger”, explains Teemu Alajoki, R&D manager at Adwatec.

 

Designed for marine use

The tough conditions at sea set a standard for marine applications. All essential equipment on any vessel must be designed and made according to classification rules. Adwatec’s cooling stations have been certified by all major classification societies and are in use in many marine and offshore applications.

Use-of-valve block technology minimizes the number of fittings in the system. This, together with with the absence of rubber hoses, minimizes the risk of leakage. Aluminum and stainless steel surfaces in coolant circulation ensure the system has a long life. Copper-based materials and carbon steels are not used to avoid galvanic corrosion and slush build-up in the coolant and heat sinks.

“Cooling control is always slave to the power electronics master controls, so communication with upper-level systems is crucial. Adwatec has made sure the master system is up to date, with hard-wired contacts and Profinet or Profibus protocols based on customer needs”, explains Alajoki.

 

Space-efficient

Adwatec’s plug-and-play cooling stations are easy to assemble and use. “Commissioning takes only 30 minutes due to automatic de-aerating”, says Alajoki. In ships, space is always limited and the smaller the system footprint needed for engineering, the better. The Adwatec units are compact, with cabinet footprints starting from 400 x 600mm (16 x 24in).

Typically, if a cooling station is made to fit into a small space, it results in difficulties in servicing as many of the components are in places impossible to reach without having to disassemble the equipment. Adwatec’s modular construction solves this. All components are easy to see and reach, resulting in the shortest possible visual inspection and service time.

Headquartered in Finland, Adwatec is a water technology company with a global customer base. Since 2000 it has developed water cooling stations for a range of applications, including marine propulsion. A strong focus on R&D enables it to provide new innovations and technical solutions. Adwatec is part of Helkama Emotor Group, which employs 400 professionals worldwide.

 

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12.1.2021