Simplified energy balance model for the preliminary assessment of naval hybrid propulsion architectures: KVLCC case study

Abstract

Decarbonizing maritime transport requires reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by combining energy efficiency measures with hybrid propulsion architectures. Although numerous individual technical solutions exist, speed optimization, shaft generators, energy storage systems, their combined evaluation, within a simple and reproducible framework, remains difficult in the early stages of design or conceptual analysis. This paper proposes a simplified energy balance model, developed in MATLAB, which estimates the fuel consumption of a ship over a given operational profile, comparing a conventional configuration with a hybrid configuration in which low-load regimes are handled by an auxiliary electric source. The model is calibrated on the geometry and published hydrodynamic data of the KVLCC (MOERI Tanker) reference ship, using a real operating point (design speed and delivered power) taken from the specialized literature. For the operational profile analyzed, the results indicate an estimated fuel consumption reduction of 29.7% in the hybrid configuration, highlighting the potential of this methodological approach. The proposed framework can subsequently be extended with proprietary hydrodynamic data (CFD) and more complex energy management strategies.