While the commercial fishing industry has dipped its collective toe into diesel electric hybrid power, other commercial marine sectors are diving in.
Twin Disc, a company with more than a century of history, has been part of the game longer than many people realize. As early as 1995, the company was shipping hybrid gears for oil rigs in Siberia.“We started with marine hybrid gears in 2019,” says Klaus Meyersieck, hybrid sales manager at Twin Disc. “We shipped 6 units for 3 tugs for the Great Lakes Towing Company. So far, we haven’t installed any systems on commercial fishing vessels. We’ve had inquiries about transmission and complete systems, but so far, none have been built."
According to Meyersieck, there still isn’t enough traction in the commercial fishing sector. “Supportive measures, such as subsidies and regulations, will likely be needed to encourage further adoption," he says.
The commercial fishing industry has often piggybacked on technology developed for other industries, particularly the automotive and defense sectors. So, while a few fishing organizations, such as the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Glas Ocean Electric in Nova Scotia, are building hybrid commercial fishing vessels with government subsidies, most fishermen are waiting as companies like Twin Disc continue to develop the technology and bring prices down to where the investment makes sense.
In addition to Twin Disc’s MGX line of marine transmissions, the company now offers the MGE and MGH lines of transmissions, ranging from full electric to manual hybrid, in which the captain can switch from diesel to electric. Meyersieck notes that advantages already exist. “If you use the electric when you’re idling at low RPMs, you save fuel, and you can use the electric motor for peak shaving at higher speeds, which can help you stay under the 800-horsepower limit for Tier III.”
Twin Disc plans to develop hybrid versions of its entire range of marine transmissions. The MGH line of hybrid-ready transmissions has 95 percent parts commonality with the diesel-only MGX transmissions. “The main difference is that we have a clutch to disengage the diesel when the electric only is running,” says Meyersieck. “And it has a PTI to get electric power into the transmission. It also has a seawater pump, so with electric power, you still have seawater available for cooling.”
The software and hardware engineering challenge that Twin Disc has succeeded in meeting, according to global applications manager Steve Hall, is developing a control system that automatically makes power changes and allows fishermen to focus on fishing. “We want to automate things that make sense to automate and put a lot of smarts into our controller so that the system can come in and out of diesel or electric mode, or run both, when necessary,” says Hall. “Just like in a Prius, the captain runs his throttle to go faster or slower, and our hybrid controller decides if it needs to be in diesel or electric mode.”
According to Meyersieck, the controller will also manage propulsion, battery charging, and other components of a parallel hybrid system. The goal is to provide customers with a nearly turnkey system,” he says. As these systems become more turnkey and affordable, it’s likely that some fishermen may take a chance on them. More information on Twin Disc’s hybrid options can be found here.
