Traditionally, ships are powered by fossil fuels in combustion engines, causing 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Alternative installations have yet to prove their reliability and are currently not as cheap or technological ready.
To enable ship-owners to prepare their ship for the future, but postpone their decision on which alternative installation to choose, it is the objective of this research to develop and validate a method for modular design of the power supply system of a ship, that allows a low-impact refit to lower the ship’s greenhouse gas emissions when the alternative power supply technology is ready.
This method is developed within the scope of short-sea dry cargo vessels with little auxiliary power(<20%) that is to be refitted before 2050, but the method is kept as general as possible. The studied background information includes greenhouse gases, possible alternative installations, low-impact refits, and modularity. Furthermore, the method is verified and validated using two different case ships.
In this report information about the method for modular design can be found, but also information on alternative power supply systems. The method is presented in chapter 5 and 6. It is concluded in chapter 7 that the developed method is effective and enables a low-impact refit, without significant negative impact on the initial design.It is concluded from this research that the method is effective and enables a low impact refit, without significant negative impact on the original design.For readers who want to know more about the alternative installations instead of the method, some basic information about available energy carriers and power supply units can be found in 2.3, the components of alternative installations of the case ship can be found in chapter 4 and the effect of those installations on the design to be found in section 5.3.

The subject of this research is the concept design of a compact and economically feasible platform for studying the behaviour of bowhead whales in the ice-infested water around the coast of North-East Greenland and particularly in the Fram Strait.

The study is focused on the capabilities of the vessel to operate in a dynamic ice-infested environment and on the strategies to be used for surviving in such a harsh area. An extensive part of the research consists in an environmental study of the ice and climatic conditions of the Fram Strait which are barely available in literature.

The design is carried out using a System Engineering approach in order to evaluate the mission and its requirements and to transform them into high-level concepts which are compared through the usage of an Analytic Hierarchy Process.
The ice-breaking capabilities are evaluated using the Net Thrust Concept and the ice loads in compressive ice are calculated through a quasi-static approach with ISO19906 standard for Arctic offshore structures.

The final concept design proposes a vessel that can accommodate a crew of six people and that can perform the research activity also underwater through a moon pool. The vessel is able to reach the operational location autonomously and to drift following the ice movements towards South. Moreover, it is able to cope with compressive ice events thanks to a rounded hull that lifts the vessel up when compressed by ice.

Overall, the construction and operation of the Drifting Ice Vessel are judged to be feasible. However, the task is not without risks and further experiments, tests and trials are recommended, to verify more deeply and validate the ice-loads estimation and the lifting behaviour of the hull.