At the recent Venice Boat Show, the company Vulkan Italia presented the first retrofit of a motorboat of ACTV, the local passenger transport company in Venice.
The goal behind Vulkan’s Hybrid Architect team’s hybrid retrofit of a steamboat is to reduce emissions in Venice and its lagoon by transitioning to innovative propulsion systems. Thus, the Canal Grande-type motorboat, Series 80, built in 1982 was the protagonist of a structural retrofit to implement a serial hybrid system.
After more than a year of work, on board now is a 147 kW MP synchronous electric propulsion motor, a 125 kW generator set, eight 9.6 kW battery modules, a main system management panel, and power converters of 13 kW each.
Taking a step back, it is good to frame Vulkan’s actuality: in March 2023, it officially unveiled the BIIM, Innovative Modular Hybrid Boat, an innovative vessel concept with a hybrid propulsion system designed to ply the Mediterranean Sea. The 13-meter-long vessel can operate either in traditional propulsion mode, with 2 100 kW diesel engines, or in fully electric mode, with 2 30 kW electric motors powered by salt batteries and fuel cells.
A project in partnership
The project was realized through the collaboration of a consortium of Liguria-based companies Duferco Engineering, VULKAN Italia, Names, Costruzioni Navali Tigullio Castagnola, BluEnergy Revolution and I.Mar.s, with contributions from UNIGE and RINA.
