Superconductor engines
www.amsuper.com

There will be a model of an 80m mega yacht on display at SMM which demonstrates how a fully electric and environmentally friendly ship might work, built by shipbuilding engineer Karl-Otto Sadler. 

Mr Sadler has banished diesel engines completely from his ship designs.

There are several configurations available, such as a pod system and four waterjets (33 knots), or a rudder propeller and six waterjets for over 40 knots. 

The pod driver and rudder propeller are driven by HTS electric motors, and power supplied by fuel cells, which also generate energy for shipboard power supply. 

The waterjets are powered by gas turbines with HTS technology. 

The exhaust gases from the turbines passed through the jet of water of the water jet drives; this means that some of the gas is absorbed in the water rather than released to the atmosphere.

It reduces the problem of naval ships being detected by analysing the infrared signature of their exhaust gases. 

The generators, motors and and power supply systems use superconductors, which provide more power with a lighter engine. 

The superconductors need to be cooled with liquid nitrogen, using technology which is already commonly used in medical applications. 

Because there is no electrical resistance in the cables, the current density can be up to 50 times higher for the same size engine, leading to a much more powerful motor, which takes up less space on the ship.

US firm American Conductor and the French group Alstom are working on HTS engines for ships - they have already completed a two year trial, with a first practical deployment expected for SMM 2006.