Model development of a gas turbine powered ship for comparison of green fuels

Knowledge of the effects of low/zero carbon green fuels on the performance of marine gas turbine-based propulsion systems is necessary for the decarbonization of gas-turbine powered ships. This work presents a general methodology to model an aeroderivative gas turbine-based marine propulsion system with some unique features. The gas turbine model is derived from a systematic search of discrete points of high-resolution component maps. Genetic algorithms (GA) have been used to auto-scale generic component maps to the known design point. This enables iterative re-scaling to calibrate parasitic losses and to optimize map selection. The gas turbine model is coupled to a data-based drive train/propeller model and emission model to predict ship speed and CO/CO ₂ /NO _x emissions for any given fuel flow rate. The integrated model was used to predict the performance of an Arleigh Burke class (DDG 51) destroyer over a 200 h, 2548 nautical mile trajectory with four different fuels: F76 Marine diesel, Liquid Hydrogen, Methanol and Liquefied Natural Gas. Predicted energy per mile and ship range were largely dependent on the tradeoff between energy density and gravimetric density of the fuels. The integrated model and aggregated data is publicly available and can be a useful tool to analyze or design marine decarbonization technologies.