A zero-emission vessel was created by our scientists

A scientific team from Ruse University has built a demonstration vessel for laboratory needs, HydRUforce, with a hybrid drive based on solar energy – battery – fuel cell. HydRUforce has zero carbon emissions and was built under the National Scientific Program "Low-Carbon Energy for Transport and Household" ("E plus"), funded by the Ministry of Education and Science and with additional financial resources from Ruse University. Scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Technical University – Sofia also participated in the work. With the construction of HydRUforce, Bulgaria is contributing to research on the use of low-carbon energy in inland water transport in Europe. HydRUforce is the first Bulgarian vessel with hybrid drive. A significant innovation is the combination of energy from solar panels and a hydrogen fuel cell to power the vessel. It was developed under Component 2 of the "E plus" program – "Electric Vehicles and Hydrogen Mobility". The project involves Ruse University "A. Kanchev" in partnership with the Municipality of Silistra, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, TU – Sofia, and the Municipality of Ruse. For the hull of the vessel, a pontoon with a solar roof was used, built under the project "Clean Access in the Cross-Border Zone Silistra – Calarasi". Its financing is under a cross-border cooperation program with partners from the Bulgarian side, the Municipality of Silistra and Ruse University. The demonstration vessel is designed to carry a maximum of 12 people with the crew at a speed of 5 – 7 km/h against the current and 12 – 14 km/h with the current. The propulsion of the vessel is provided by two electric motors connected to a battery pack. Additionally, two hydrogen fuel cells are connected to extend the range of navigation. Solar panels are mounted on the roof of the vessel, which are used to recharge the batteries.

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AzBuki, issue 48/ 02.12.2021.