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Decarbonising marine industry

Carnot use case – Decarbonise marine auxiliary power

Zero emission auxiliary engine As society becomes increasingly aware of our environmental footprint, global industries are coming under unprecedented pressures to chart a course to a sustainable future. Shipping, the backbone of the global economy, delivers over 90% of global trade or 11 billion tons of goods annually and does so at incredibly low cost…

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Hydrogen use in HGVs – The Financial Times Hydrogen Summit

Archie was recently invited by the Financial Times to speak at their recently Hydrogen Summit. This was a gathering of global leaders involved in the Hydrogen space, discussing everything from hydrogen production, transportation, suitable use cases and the potential impact it could have on decarbonising global activities.  Archie was invited to offer his expertise on…

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Top 10 most exciting Hydrogen Start-up at Energy Tech Summit!

CARNOT are delighted to have been selected in the top 10 most exciting cleantech start-ups at the Energy Tech Challengers 2022. The Energy Tech Challengers identifies the most exciting start-ups across a few core segments including Hydrogen, E-Mobility, Carbon Removal, Digitalization, Battery, AI and the Future Grid. Thanks to the Energy Tech Summit panel…

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Supporting the next generation of Engineers!

Carnot are delighted to be supporting Motivez, a community driven organisation championing the next generation of under represented STEM leaders and change makers.  Nadiur Rahman, Co-Founder of Carnot recently visited students to discuss his experiences and the opportunities within STEM Careers. Nadiur Rahman visiting Motivez program As Nadiur says: "Honoured to be invited to talk about my experiences as…

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Powering sub-Saharan Africa with Environmental, Social & Gender inclusion

In his recent book, ‘How to avoid a climate disaster’, Bill Gates focuses on electricity as the first major priority to consider in his manifesto for how to tackle the climate emergency. The reliable and low-cost supply of electricity has countless benefits across the economic and social spectrum. Gates also highlights that of the 860…

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Decarbonising marine industry

Meet Ian Cooke! Head of Test & Development

Introducing Ian Cooke – the newest addition to the team! Ian has over 12 years of experience working on cutting edge research, test and development projects for world-championship winning Formula One teams during his time at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, high-profile tech companies, tier one suppliers and automotive OEMs. Ian will lead the Testing and Development as…

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Dunbar Racing Engineering Partnership

CARNOT are pleased pleased to announce our partnership with Dunbar Race Engineering as we aim to produce our proof-of-concept prototype in 2021. Lead by Duncan Dunbar a Mechanical Design Engineer with extensive experience in the Motorsport industry; having worked in Superbikes, MotoGP, Formula 1 and Historic racing. Formerly an Engineering Team Leader at Mercedes AMG HPP. Amongst other specialities,…

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Francis Lempp – Co-Founders behind CARNOT

Francis Lempp - Co-Founder Carnot was co-founded by entrepreneurs Archie Watts-Farmer, Francis Lempp and Nadiur Rahman. Their aim is reduce global co2 emissions by 13% and bring clean, secure and affordable energy to all. To better understand Carnot and gain an insight into the companies’ motivations we carried out interviews with its co-founders, following this series we interviewed…

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Tom Rhodes – Welcoming our newest advisor!

Tom Rhodes Tom Rhodes – Senior Technical Adviser. A former Head of Design for Dearman, an innovative startup company creating a zero emission (at point of use) liquid nitrogen powered engine. Tom has spent his career focusing on component and assembly design from complex one off specialist testing equipment to high volume high performance automotive products.…

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Zero emission auxiliary engine

As society becomes increasingly aware of our environmental footprint, global industries are coming under unprecedented pressures to chart a course to a sustainable future. Shipping, the backbone of the global economy, delivers over 90% of global trade or 11 billion tons of goods annually and does so at incredibly low cost & high reliability but is no exception to the transition.

Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and Light Fuel Oil (LFO) accounted for 82% of all fuel used by the marine industry in 2020 according to the IMO, contributing to 940 million tonnes of CO2 emitted annually by the industry, more than 2.5% of global emissions.

The maritime industry must join the battle to reduce environmental pollution by adopting new innovative technologies. However, the challenge lies with a highly cyclical and competitive nature of the sector where profit margins are often low and the need to comply with the regulations that can’t keep up with the latest decarbonising technology is mandatory. It takes a company with the vision to commit to the change and we have partnered with the UK based Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. for the advancement of our project.

Decarbonising with Carisbrooke Shipping

Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. Is a family-owned business with over 50 years in business and has a long-standing commitment to innovation. The company’s philosophy is to lead the industry by building new, more efficient vessels to replace the existing ones and around 100 vessels were built at shipyards all over the world. Their previous project featured optimised bow design improving fuel efficiency by 20% compared to the existing similar ships on the market at that time.

Currently their Fleet Operation Centre uses wide range of tools from AI assisted Weather Routing, Voyage Optimisation and Just-In-Time arrival concept to in-house sea-going and engineering expertise in order to successfully maximise performance and reduce emissions in line with the CII-related targets.

When further exploring decarbonising, Carisbrooke evaluated a wide range of technologies for their auxiliary fuel systems, such as fuel cells, batteries, hybrid fuel and emission removal of fossil fuels. However, each of them had significant drawbacks and could not meet the stringent space, cost and maintenance requirements. In comparison, Carnot’s technology high reliability, ease of maintenance, low cost of ownership lead to the selection of the Carnot solution as the powertrain of choice.

The Kimberly C

With Carisbrooke and Concept Green Solutions, we co-developed a zero-emission auxiliary power unit to be used onboard the Kimberly C, a 6,805 DWT general cargo vessel. The system is containerised within a 20-foot container, mounted on the bow. One container has the 200 kW Carnot Engine and core generation machinery with fuel stored separately. See below a snapshot of the core configuration of the system.

Hydrogen : Ammonia fuel blends

We also worked closely with the University of Southampton to review numerous different fuel combinations. What we were exploring was the most practical, economical and zero emission fuel types. Ultimately what we identified was a specific hydrogen and ammonia fuel blend. This combination results in a lower cost of operation when compared to diesel, is easier to store and manage the fuel, emits zero emissions and provides the best path to approved certification from IACS registered regulatory bodies.

For this project we partnered with DNV & Concept Green Solutions to develop & review a safety concept for the low flashpoint plant, fuel storage and operation onboard an existing vessel. They provided their expertise on how to best configure the system to comply with Classification Society regulations. This project enables us to set this technology on the path to full Type Approval and widespread utilisation within the industry. 

Shipping is a highly regulated industry with a unique set of technical challenges. Whilst ammonia is becoming more common, the guidelines for hydrogen as a fuel are far less defined. Carnot is currently partnering with the class societies to design the new approved framework which the key and is ongoing part in our development program.

Decarbonising marine power systems

The core objective of this project however was emission reduction. To quantify our impact, we worked closely with the University of Strathclyde who calculated that for each Carnot Engine replacing an equivalent diesel-powered unit, the annual savings are as follows:

      • 1,740 tons of CO2e
      • 470 tons of PM 2.5
      • 375 tons of SO2
      • 178 tons of NOx

Annual CO2 reduction 1,740 tons

One of the main advantages of the Carnot solution is in the tremendous scaling opportunities. For example, if we consider that there are 55,000 vessels worldwide with two zero emission auxiliary engines onboard, this represents saving of 191,400,000 tons of CO2e per annum, or 20% globally.

Our ambition is to deliver this solution for harbour & sea trials onboard.  We look forward to sharing the results from these trials in the next 12 months!

This hugely exciting project will demonstrate our ability to help decarbonise a hard to abate sector, whilst reducing OPEX and meeting the IMO’s challenging regulatory framework. We anticipate delivery of a cost-effective power plant, at scale and in a very short space of time.

If you would like to find out more about this project, interest in utilising such technology or discuss collaboration opportunities, please reach out to us via the form below or via the socials

With thanks to all our partners

& Concept Green Solutions