Published: 11/08/2020
A collaboration with the University of Southampton’s Marine and Maritime Institute has charged up the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s newly formed Maritime Future Technologies team, with a new research placement looking at how high density batteries could help make our ships cleaner and greener. This is in line with how the team intends to work, by facilitating and supporting innovation, whilst providing some critical insight to these complex issues that will drive the UK to emerge as a worldwide role model in this area.
PhD researcher and chartered engineer Benjamin Craig will be working alongside the team to examine whether the use of such batteries and hybrid drive systems could be beneficial to the maritime sector. Working closely with University of Southampton professors Dr Richard Wills and Prof Andrew Cruden, Benjamin will look at the technical potential and limitations along with the environmental and financial impact that a widespread uptake of the technology would have on the maritime industry.
This will then help inform MCA guidance to those interested in adopting these new technological developments. This is the second future fuels research placement the Maritime Future Technologies team has announced with Southampton University and SMMI, as the MCA looks to support and enable safe testing and development of future fuel technologies on UK registered vessels, and guide the industry as it looks for ways of reaching decarbonisation targets.