The TRYBRID Project will deliver a technology demonstrator for the new energy agenda that has never before been seen: a project that will for the first time, close the loop on both use of renewable energy, and its onboard production. Photovoltaic solar energy will electrolyze, compress and store hydrogen, to be reused in extended ocean passages. Natural gas will be mixed with hydrogen to reduce the diesel consumption to around 15% of the fuel mix, and natural gas ‘reformed’ to make hydrogen. Hydrogen will also power a fuel cell, to power the main electric engine. The extreme trimaran hull form, with it’s demonstration solar hydrogen gear will be taken on a display tour of the worlds capital cities, in an effort to demonstrate that the new energy agenda is as much about today, as it is a dream of the tomorrow. Given soaring oil prices and carbon based climate change concerns, the TRYBRID project is ‘an idea whose time has arrived’.

Australia’s dominance as designer of the best of the world’s fast ferries, and a recent shift in the Australian government’s attitude around the dangers of CO2, and the risks of peak oil, combine to make the naval architectural design of this project, a logical Australian duty.

This website details the boats design purpose and features. We look at the designers, builders, academics, government and corporate sponsors who are engaged on the project, along with the aid teams with whom the boat will be working, after its world technology demonstration tour. The site follows the progress of the project, currently in the design stages. (more…)

The TYBRID project is investigating the use of natural gas to make hydrogen for two purposes, one simply to use the pure hydrogen to power a fuel cell, and a second purpose of firing up the diesels with a mixture of mainly natural gas, with a dash of diesel and hydrogen.

Hydrogen enjoys the ability to be produced from a wide range of sources. One such source is simple water, where around 55kw of electricity is needed to make the rough equivalent of a US gallon of petrol, in hydrogen gas. This process is called electrolysis, and the closest you may have come to a roughly similar process, is when you saw the bubbles forming on the plates of conventional car battery. One of the other ways to make hydrogen, is in the process where 85% of the energy from LPG or natural gas, is transferred or ‘reformed’ to make hydrogen. This we hoped can be done onboard, in a small hydrogen reformer and PSA unit, separate from the hydrogen electrolyzer

Eden Energy, based in Perth, and operational across the globe, promotes the use of a blend of both hydrogen and natural gas in combination, to both clean up the emissions, and then ‘sex-up’ the conventional diesel engine, all while the world awaits the more affordable release of the very efficient fuel cell. (more…)

Ina few weeks, the TRYBRID will upload several hours of opinions from a range of experts as below, along with political views from environment ministers , state secretaries, and acting premiers, and many more. (more…)

(more…)

It’s windy out, there on the world oceans. No inconvenient mountains or trees diminish the wind’s power out on the big blue. But most of a boats life is at anchor, moored up, where the wind still blows. But unlike sailors battling flapping headsails in the middle of the night, the wind that sweeps over a boat can be used and stored, even whilst the boat is unattended. In TRYBRID’s shift to hydrogen gas, as a core energy storage medium, all of a sudden the boat design has a big appetite for energy to make hydrogen via electrolysis. So we have added wind turbines, to be deployed at anchor. Lots of them. A small wind turbine, that won’t slice an arm off, can still generate 500watts. (more…)

The general layout drawings ( in many editions) were evolved in a 2D format, but the real job of making it all come together, in a three dimensional form, is where the real design sculpting starts. From a cardboard model, to a 2D plan, then on into 3D plan, the naval architectural process is candy for those with hungry imagination. (more…)

Australia boasts being the world’s leader in fast ferry design, and the designer in Australia with the best track record in hull efficiency, is the design group, One2Three Design, based in Sydney.

Critical to efficiency at sea are two core things, minimal skin friction, and excellent hull shaping to, well, deal with those pesky waves you find out there. Add light, well distributed weight, and some good old fashioned sea keeping abilities, and TRYBRID is indeed leading naval architecture into a filed on new ideas. (more…)