Advanced auxiliary cooling system for energy efficient ships

Mia Elga,c, Maunu Kuosab, Markku Lampinenb, Risto Lahdelmab, Panu Mäkipeskaa,
Juuso Raitaa, Guangrong Zouc, Kari Tammic
aDeltamarin Ltd, Postikatu 2, FI-20250 Turku
bAalto University, School of Engineering, Department of Energy Technology, P.O.
Box 14400, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
cVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Vuorimiehentie 3 (Espoo), P.O. Box
1000, FI-02044 VTT

Abstract
A bulk carrier ship was utilized as the case vessel for studying the development potential in the ship auxiliary
cooling systems. These systems consist of central coolers between the sea water cooling system and low
temperature (LT) fresh water cooling system connected to the high-temperature (HT) cooling water circuit.
The HT and LT water are utilized for cooling the engines and several auxiliary ship processes, and the water
distribution is usually realized with only a few large pumps, traditionally both with fixed speed. Even if the
heat energy in LT-water is currently dumped to the sea, the LT-water could be utilized for heating certain
targets directly or it could be used as the heat source for heat pumps.

This study quantified the fuel saving potential that could be achieved with advanced flow control. The
preliminary results show that once operating the ship in ISO conditions, the saved fuel with controlling the
main pumps in this system could be over 4% of the case ship total fuel consumption, yearly. Furthermore, a
new topology and some alternative control methods for the ship cooling water system are discussed. The
main principles for the improvements are the utilization of several distributed variable speed pumps and a
balanced ring network. Similar principles have been applied in modern district heating and cooling systems.
In addition to producing a delivery head lift, these pumps are used to adjust temperatures in the supply and
return lines.

1 Introduction
Energy efficiency of a ship requires both efficient production and efficient use of the energy onboard. The
most important decisions regarding ship energy efficiency are made at the early concept design phase, when
the choices regarding the ship capacity, main dimensions and the basic machinery and fuel for the ship are
made. After these decisions, the improvement potential lies in subsystem optimization onboard.

Examining the energy balance of the case vessel, a B.Delta 37 bulk carrier with a low-speed main diesel
engine for producing the propulsion power for the ship and three medium-speed auxiliary diesel engines for
producing the necessary electricity onboard, the majority of the energy consumption is required for producing
the propulsion power for the ship. The overall engine fuel utilization in the case vessel that represents a
typical bulk carrier is presented below in Figure 1.
ENGINE FUEL ENERGY UTILIZATION

Engine energy production MWh/a

Propulsion pow er 19355
Electrical energy 5195
Economizer heat 2478 HT whr Lost
HT w hr 699 1% 49%
Lost 26165 Economizer
heat Propulsion
Total engine fuel energy used 53892 Electrical power
5%
Total engine fuel energy utilized 27726 energy 36%
Overall engine fuel efficiency 51,4 % 10%

Figure 1 The big picture of the engine fuel energy utilization in B.Delta 37 bulk carrier vessel

Once examining the energy balance calculation in more detail, we can calculate the impact of the various
ship systems in the total energy balance. Traditionally, the majority of the energy saving efforts in ship
design are directed into optimizing the hull form or choosing an efficient main engine since the improvement
in these two fields of design leads to the most substantial fuel savings, as shown in Figure 2. Many academic
references can be found related to ship hydrodynamic improvements. We will focus on the ship machinery
optimization in this study. The various heat flows in a vessel draw an increasing attention in the design
process as more than half of the fuel energy is converted to waste heat energy in the exhaust and cooling
circuits, and the number of publications related to the main machinery of the ships is increasing. For
instance, G. Shu et al. (2013) studied various ways to recover the waste heat from a marine two-stroke
engine and their economy. The technologies reviewed were installing a power turbine, evaporator for fresh
water production, electricity production with a Rankine cycle, cooling power or ice-production with sorption
refrigeration and combined WHR systems. M. Hatami et al. (2014) reviewed the various heat exchanger
technologies for efficient transfer of the waste heat and presented some necessary equations for modelling
and analysis of these heat exchangers. As the modern low-speed marine engines are very efficient and the
waste heat produced is low grade heat, finding feasible pay back times for the WHR equipment has been
difficult in shipbuilding. Also, ships are often operating with lower speed than what they were designed for, in
order to save fuel in operation. This leads to even lowered possibilities for waste heat recovery from the
machinery, and it should be considered in the design of these systems.

Figure 2 Calculation of the fuel saving impact of saving 1% in the ship consumers or largest
consumer groups in the case bulk carrier ship.
Nevertheless, the total energy saving potential in the ship systems depends, not only on the total impact in
the fuel consumption, but also on the improvement potential that the systems have. Therefore, by
understanding the design requirements of ship systems, we can identify from the bulk carrier ship energy
balance an interesting group of energy consumers with considerable saving potential, the ship auxiliaries for
propulsion (and ship systems). This group consists mainly of pumps and fans for circulating the fuel, various
cooling (or heating-) water, air or lubrication oil. The largest energy saving potential of the equipment in this
group can be found on equipment that has medium to large power requirements and that is more or less
constantly utilized. In addition to this, there has to be possibility to control this equipment without jeopardizing
the functionality of the machinery.

All ship systems are usually dimensioned for a large variety of operating conditions, such as tropical
temperatures as well as winter conditions. Also the systems must function when the machinery is operated at
full load. Consequently, the ship systems are practically operated at partial load conditions during their life
time. In this study we choose the two largest pumps in the ship auxiliaries-group that run more or less
constantly for quantifying the improvement potential and present some principal solutions for improving the
operational efficiency of these systems. The chosen system for examination is the sea water and LT water
cooling system of the ship. The LT stands for “low temperature”, as there are both LT and HT (high
temperature) cooling water circuits required for the diesel engines.

The chosen cooling systems are an interesting target for a study, since LT water could also be utilized in
certain other applications for further energy savings in ships. Examples of these processes would be to
utilize the LT-water as heat source for a heat pump, in order to produce heat in higher temperature for the
ship consumers or even utilizing the LT water for preheating an Organic Rankine Cycle –type of small waste
heat utilizing power plant that Cayer et al. (2008) examined. Both of these processes would benefit from
having as high temperature as possible in the returning LT water after the components that the system
serves.

2 Cooling system of a cargo ship

Figure 3 below presents a very simplified set-up of the bulk carrier cooling water system, where only the
largest targets to be cooled are shown and the several smaller consumers are combined together, in order to
simplify the study. The system consists of the sea water cooling circuit that cools down the LT circuit, as
utilizing sea water directly for the consumers would require utilizing more expensive equipment due to the
corrosion risk. The LT circulation serves both the main engine and some related equipment as well as the
auxiliary engines and some other ship systems, such as air conditioning compressors. The HT-water circuit
of the main engine is also partly cooled by the LT circuit even if the heat in the HT circuit is mainly utilized in
a fresh water generator. The HT-water of the running auxiliary engines can be utilized for stand by-heating of
the engines that are not run, and the additional heat in this circuit is internally cooled in the LT circuit of the
auxiliary engines. In the example system there is one sea water pump utilized for circulating the sea cooling
water through the central cooler, and meanwhile on the LT side also one LT water pump is utilized for
circulating the water in the entire LT water system. There is also a smaller LT water pump that is used once
the ship is in harbor, which is already creating savings in the system, compared to a common set-up of the
cooling system with only one large LT water pump utilized in all situations. The redundancy of the system is
usually ensured by installing two pumps in parallel in the main systems, which is not shown in the principal
scheme below. The temperature of the LT water after the central cooler is typically controlled by the three-
way valve after the cooler.
Figure 3 A simplified schematics of the case vessel cooling water system.

The cooling system components are dimensioned in such a way that the system is capable of transferring all
heat from the equipment when the majority of the equipment is utilized at its full power in the design
conditions. On top of this, certain fouling or safety margins are added. The system is, therefore, often over-
dimensioned even for constant operation in the design conditions since the average load of the engines and
other equipment is usually much lower than 100%.

An important characteristic in the ship cooling water process of the case vessel is that a lower temperature of
the LT water results in better efficiency in the main engine, as well as for some other equipment. Therefore
the temperature set point of the LT water is kept as low as the system parameters allow, which limits the
theoretical possibilities of reducing the sea water flow. This is an example of the importance of considering
the global efficiency, even if optimizing a subsystem.

3 Ship case and saving calculations

An energy balance calculation for the case ship was formed based on the design data of the case vessel.
This data consists of the average estimated operational profile of the ship, the propulsion power
requirements for the various load conditions, as well as the average electricity and heat requirements for the
ship processes and the ship machinery parameters. Further, the ship system design data, together with the
engine operational data from the engine manufacturer [MAN 2015 1,2] was used to estimate the amount of
energy transferred from the equipment to the cooling circuit. The values for dimensioning conditions and
ISO-operational conditions are presented in Table 1 below. The yearly share of hours at each operational
mode is also included in the table. The first row described the conditions that are the basis for dimensioning
the equipment and the second row presents the values for ISO conditions, with full load on the main engine,
and average load for the other consumers. According to the operational profile, the main engine load varies
between 40% and 75% at sea. In port, only the auxiliary engines are utilized. The column on the right
summarizes the heat flows in the LT circuit, cooled by the sea water.
Table 1. Approximated Energy flow (load) data (in kW), including the yearly operation profile for the
case vessel (with approximately 6 MW two-stroke low speed marine diesel engine)

The mass flow of the LT water in the design conditions was also obtained from the engine project guide and
from the ship design data. The temperature of the LT water in the design conditions was 36°C, and by
knowing these two variables, the total temperature difference over the single components in the LT-water
cooling system could be evaluated with the following equation (1):

𝑄 = 𝑚̇ ∙ 𝑐𝑝 ∙ ∆𝑇 (1)

where Q denotes the heat power transferred to the cooling system from the equipment, 𝑚̇ is the mass flow
and 𝑐𝑝 is the heat capacity of the LT-water. ∆𝑇 denotes the temperature difference over the equipment. In
this study we assumed that the dimensioning case, presented in the first row of table 1 set the limit for the
maximal temperature differences in the process for all conditions.

The pumping power required for the pumps was estimated by using a generic equation (2):
𝑚̇ ∆𝑝
𝑃= ∙ (2)
𝜌 𝜂

where 𝜌 is the density of the fluid and 0 < 𝜂 < 1 denotes the efficiency of the pump. In this study, a constant
value of 0.6 was assumed for both LT-water and sea water cooling pumps for describing the total efficiency
of the pump, including motor losses. ∆𝑝 is the pressure difference required for the pump, and this value
depends on the total system design. For the preliminary calculations in the study, the reference values from
the case vessel design material were used to describe the pressure loss in the LT water and sea water
pumps. The design pressure loss for the LT-water pump was 3bar and for the sea water pump 2,5bar, and
they are mainly based on the requirements for the main engine, since the main engine has the largest
components with the largest pressure losses in the system, after the entire central cooler.

The power for the LT water and sea water pumps was estimated with the above equation for setting a base
case for the study. The energy saving possibilities for the system lie in examining the last column (on the
right) in Table 1, the load on the central cooler, compared to the dimensioning value. With fixed flows for the
cooling waters, the temperature difference over the cooling system components varies, but if the flow is
controlled, instead, the power required for the pumps can be reduced. Once recognizing possibility to reduce
flow on the pumps, the new power requirements were estimated with the affinity laws, as Menon (2011)
suggests. According to affinity laws, the pressure difference (or pump head) is proportional to the square of
the flow rate and the pumping power is proportional to the cube of the mass flow rate,

𝑝 𝑚̇ 2
=( ) (3)
𝑝0 𝑚̇0

𝑃 𝑚̇ 3
=( ) (4)
𝑃0 𝑚̇0

where subscripts 0 refer to design point.

Once the ship energy balance data was combined together with the estimated power for the pumps in
different flow control scenarios, the fuel saving potential could be estimated. In this study we focused on the
cooling water flows around the central cooler component, which means that the preliminary results were not
restricted by possible demands for water flow in single components of the cooling system. Instead, the
minimum flow for each component in the cooling system was set by the component specific maximum
temperature differences.

The variables in the calculation were, thus, the operating profile that had an impact on the ship energy needs
for various consumers. The variable LT-water consumer cooling requirements is presented in table 1. The
ambient conditions were considered through the main engine parameters that were affected by both air
temperature and cooling water temperature. The sea water temperature had an impact on the central cooler
and the supply temperature of LT-water into the (LT-) system was assumed to be kept 4˚C above sea water,
with certain limits, however.

4 Preliminary results
As a result of this paper, evaluation of the total fuel saving potential of controlling the flows in the fresh water
cooling circuits was made. The reference case for calculation was the situation with no control on either sea
water or LT-water pumps. The situation with no flow control on either pump with the average operational
profile was analyzed first. Second, we assumed that the ship would operate in tropical conditions specified in
Table 1, and and the flow could be reduced in both, LT-water and sea water pumps to 30% from the
dimensioning flow. Finally, the calculation, using the operation profile in Table 1, was conducted for the
constant operation in ISO conditions, defined by the engine project guide. This means that the sea water
temperature would be 21˚C, and the LT-water set-point temperature 25 ˚C. The results of the study, the
energy saving potential in the major pumps in the cooling water system, are presented below in Table 2.
Table 2. Preliminary results of estimating the energy saving potential in the major pumps in the
cooling water systems for a B.Delta 37 bulk carrier. The minimum flow is set to 30% of the
dimensioning value.

In the ISO operational conditions, with the average operation profile, the total fuel consumption of the ship
would be 4733 t/a, of which 1256 t/a is the amount of fuel required for the auxiliary engines. When
considering the theoretical saving potential in the sea water and LT-water cooling pumps, the yearly fuel
consumption of the auxiliary engines would be reduced to 1051 t/a that results in theoretical saving potential
of 206 t/a, 4,35% of the ship total fuel consumption.

5 Discussion of the alternatives for the efficient LT-water cooling system topology
Since this study does not include modelling the piping in detail, the local pressure losses are not quantified
and the possible solutions for the cooling system topology are discussed only on general level. As shown in
Figure 3, in the existing cooling circuit, the water distribution is realized with only a few large pumps. In
practice, local pressure losses caused by valves create difficulties to control the flow and, consequently,
significant amount of cooling water is unnecessarily circulated in the system. Figure 4 below presents an
even simpler version of the current LT-water circulation, and its main components. If flow control is applied
on the LT water pump, it has to be verified that all the consumers receive enough cooling water. For
instance, the necessary pressure difference for the consumers located on the upper decks might drop too
much, if speed control is applied directly to the traditional cooling system. This can be avoided, for example,
by installing automatic or manual on/off control valves before each consumer that keep the design mass flow
through the consumers, while the LT water pump can be controlled by keeping a right pressure difference in
the system. However, this type of control does not allow the full potential of flow control in the system,
estimated in the previous chapter, since the flow over single components cannot be adjusted.
Figure 4 Simplified presentation of the current LT-water circulation with only one main pump for the
system

Therefore, a more balanced cooling water network and, eventually, increased individual control for the
system sub-components would be required, when aiming for full or nearly full utilization of the energy saving
potential of the cooling system estimated in the previous chapter. Laajalehto et al. (2014) proposed a new
district heating (DH) system for a case network of residential buildings. They utilized a new control of DH
water, ‘mass flow control’, and a ring topology of piping for a better control accuracy of the DH water flow
systems. Even if the target with the reference system was heating application, the same principles could be
applied to any cooling application, as well as to ship cooling water systems.

The characteristics of the ring network enable equal pipe length and pressure losses for each auxiliary
process. Figure 5 presents a simplified diagram of the ship LT-water cooling circuit, with the ring network
topology applied. The principle of equal pipe length from central cooler to each subcomponent, including the
return line is visualized in Figure 5. This type of system eliminates, in practice, the problems that flow control
would cause in the traditional system, regarding the sufficient pressure for the consumers located farthest
from the LT-pump. Due to the equal pipe length, the network is naturally balanced and flow control of the LT
water pump reduces the flow more or less equally for all of the consumers.

Figure 5 Simplified ring network arrangement of the LT-water cooling system

The aim of the design could be removing the by-pass line with the three-way valve, shown in Figure 4.
However, the ring network alone is not capable of optimizing, or in other words, reducing the flow to the
minimum for the single components in the system, but the flow is reduced equally for all components.
Considering the Table 1, with the estimated heat flow for the system single components, it is clear that
individual control would be required for the components, if the full or near full saving potential in the LT-pump
would be desired. Currently, the consumer with the highest demand of heat would set the requirement for the
flow for all components.

Better control might be achieved with several distributed variable speed pumps that also allow larger
temperature rise between supply and return lines. This way, the requirements of each of the subcomponents
can be considered. Figure 6 presents further control possibilities with several smaller pumps where local
valves might be removed as well. However, the problem with this kind of system would be the investment
cost of all pumps and the related control. Also, it should be considered that the key components in the
cooling system must be redundant, which usually means that for every pump there is a stand by unit also.
This should also be considered in the profitability analysis.

Nevertheless, the system could be realized also as a combination of the systems presented in Figure 5 and
Figure 6, where individual flow control would be allocated only for certain consumers or groups of
consumers. This way, a balance between the investment costs for system and the operational efficiency
could be achieved.

Figure 6 Ring network topology and individual control of the components in the LT water system

6. Conclusions
Based on the results, the total fuel saving potential of reducing the LT-water and sea-water cooling pump
flow seems to be considerable even in the tropical operational conditions for the case vessel. This is mainly
due to the large amount of operation committed at slow speed. When examining operation in ISO conditions,
the theoretical saving potential grows further.

The saving potential on the sea water cooling pump accounts for a bit more than half of the estimated energy
saving potential in the study, and due to the rather simple, one point connection to the LT-water system, this
control system has been recognized earlier and examined in several occasions. For example Su et al. (2014)
presented a method to evaluate the savings with this system and Elg et al. (2014) implemented the control of
the sea water cooling pump in the multi-domain simulation model of the B.Delta 37 bulk carrier ship. The flow
control of the sea water cooling pumps is widely applied to both new and existing ships currently. However,
the flow control of the LT-water is not as simple to be realized and there lies the further development
potential of this study.

The calculations of finding the saving potential in the cooling system were conducted in such a way that we
only examined the total amount of heat flows from individual consumers to the central cooler and fixed the
maximum temperature difference in the central cooler based on the maximum temperature in the design
situation. Further study is needed to evaluate the requirements for individual control of the components.
Examples of these requirements could be to ensure adequate flow for certain system key components for
maximizing the ship global energy efficiency, such as the main engine charge air cooler. Also, components
that might have sudden, large cooling requirements in the actual operation, such as the steam dumping
condenser, would require that the system is adapted quickly to these sudden changes. An individual pump
could be necessary for these targets. Even components or groups of components that are located on the
upper decks of the ship might benefit from individual pumps.

In general, the purpose of this study is to open up the topic of ship power plant auxiliary cooling system
optimization and to show that there is some considerable saving potential in these systems that exist in
some form onboard every ship, regardless of the ship type. As there would be several directions for the
study, starting from defining the system design values to writing optimization algorithms for the operational
system, we started from describing a common case from a ship designer’s perspective and froze certain
starting values in order to analyze the theoretical saving potential in a typical system.

This study made several simplifications of the systems. In general, the starting point for the calculations of
the saving potential was that the mass flow in the different parts of the LT-cooling system was fixed. The
reason for this is that from a ship designer’s perspective the flows are often given by the equipment
manufacturers, and optimizing the design values for the equipment is a wide topic that is worth examining
separately. Actually, further saving potential could be found by stretching the design limits. Nevertheless, this
topic should be studied together with respective equipment manufacturers.

The bulk carrier case, described in this study is known as the simplest type of ship, regarding the machinery.
Also, the subsystems in the machinery should, preferably, be as simple as possible, especially regarding
maintenance. From both the ship builder’s and owner’s perspectives, the installation costs should not be
considerably larger than they are for the existing system. In practice, any changes made to the current state-
of-the-art systems should be very well justified. Furthermore, a ship designer balances always between
ensuring adequate redundancy for the key systems and operational energy efficiency of the systems. For
instance, any change in the LT-water temperature or flow might have a negative impact on the system key
component efficiency. Therefore, the holistic approach should be included in any sub-system optimization.
Thus, the next steps for the study are to implement the elements described in this chapter, for improved
efficiency in the ship auxiliary cooling system, in the simulation platform for the ship, presented by Elg et al.
(2014). This gives the possibility to consider the major physical characteristics in the system and to ensure
that the global efficiency of the ship is kept at maximum.

Acknowledgements
This study was made as a part of the project SET (Ship Energy Efficiency Technologies) funded by the
Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) Arctic Seas programme. Tekes, as well
as all the parties involved in the SET project are gratefully acknowledged.
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