World’s First True Hybrid Tug

There are many environmental and health-related benefits to building a hybrid tug, including:

· Reduced Emissions. The hybrid tug will reduce all emissions (nitrogen oxide, particulate emissions, sulphur dioxide and carbon emissions) due to design efficiencies and lower fuel consumption. Initial estimates show a 44 percent reduction in PM and NOx emissions for the same duty as the current Dolphin tugs in Los Angeles/Long Beach.

· Lower Fuel Consumption. The hybrid tug design minimizes fuel consumption by using a power management system to match the required power to the most efficient combination of batteries, generators and main engines for that particular power level. For example, instead of idling the main engines while in standby mode when alongside a customer vessel awaiting orders from the pilot, the hybrid tug will run on battery power with the main engines shut down. The lower fuel consumption results in reductions of carbon emissions, a contributor to greenhouse gas, as well as sulfur emissions.

· Noise Reduction. Overall, the hybrid tug will be much quieter than traditional tugs, running on battery power in standby mode and only bringing the generators and main engines online when higher power is required. This will reduce noise exposure, protecting crews from hearing loss and reducing noise pollution.

“The introduction of the hybrid tug reflects our company-wide commitment to safety and safeguarding the environment. We wanted to make a proactive move to introduce technology into the market that would reduce air emissions and help protect the health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we operate,” said Susan Hayman, Foss’ Vice President of Health, Safety, Quality and Environment.

The hybrid tug will be introduced in the Los Angeles/Long Beach market, as hybrid tug technology is best suited for harbor tugs that need high amounts of power for short periods of time. While performing tug assist jobs in this Californian harbor, tug boats spend little time at peak RPM, rarely utilizing each tug’s full horsepower. Tugs at the Los Angeles/Long Beach spend up to 50 percent of their time idling, with the main engines on and ready to respond, but with no power actually being used for propulsion. With Foss’ hybrid tug, energy is produced only on demand, so that idling of the main engines will no longer be necessary.

The hybrid tug design will make it adaptable for retrofit of existing harbor tugs. The flexible design of the tug also has the ability to take advantage of emerging technologies such as improved battery and fuel advances. This tug could also take advantage of cleaner, less expensive shore power to charge the batteries.