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This manuscript presents a clean energy solution for marine applications, investigating both the choice of the most promising production and storage technologies and, in a second step, the best operational management in order to satisfy a ship's energy demand. The case study subject of the analysis is a ferry, with a capacity up to 200 people, operating on the artificial lake of Itaipu hydroelectric plant (on the border between Brazil and Paraguay). In the framework of new international rules, aimed at clean and sustainable solutions, in particular in Emission Control Areas, PEM fuel cells are a promising technology for onboard power generation. In this paper a PEM fuel cell system is investigated in detail, analyzing the best operative strategy in terms of energy efficiency, CO2 emissions and costs, in comparison with the state-of-the-art solution for ships (fuel oil ICEs). The analysis is performed with two dedicated software tools, both developed at the University of Genoa: the first is a tool modeled to support the preliminary design and the choice of the most promising solutions for maritime applications; the second is a software program for thermo-economic analysis of energy systems in time-dependent conditions, aimed at determination of the best operative strategy, minimizing operative costs. The proposed approach has general validity thus it can also be applied to different kinds of ships, even considering different technologies for energy generation and storage. • We investigate different alternative technologies for energy production and storage. • We choose the best solution and compare it with the state of the art one. • We perform a time-dependent analysis of the two best technologies. • We compare the results in terms of fuel consumptions, emissions and costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper unveils the technology developed for a series hybrid battery-dominant electric-hydrogen fuel cell plug-in city bus. It possesses a homemade power train with three electric energy sources, which are the grid-charged energy, the one produced by the fuel cell that works at constant power and acts as a range extender and that resultant from the regeneration of kinetic energy. Emphasis was given to the design of the hybridization energy engineering that has predominance of power in batteries and predominance of energy with hydrogen. The remarkable amount of 46.6% of the total energy input reaches the motor axle for effective motion and a fuel economy of 6.7 kg H 2 /100 km was achieved. A total owner cost analysis has shown that computation of capital, operational and fueling costs makes the present bus 133% more expensive than a conventional diesel powered one. Commercialization prospects, and also social and environmental impacts are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]