Greening propulsion

“We wanted to develop a smaller battery system that would perform better, that would be better for the environment, and that would be more sustainable.”

This statement can be read on ESTechnologies’ website and this is exactly what the company is known for. Maritime Holland spoke to commercial director and co-founder Cor Meedendorp.

ESTechnologies is part of EST-Floattech, a merger between Floattech, supplier of energy systems, navigation and communication equipment, computer networks, data links and multimedia products and CCTV for superyachts founded in 2004, and ESTechnologies, specialised in the design and supply of active battery management systems founded in 2009. The owners are Meedendorp and Diederick Stam.

The company employs about 15 people and is located in Medemblik, a small town about 60 kilometres north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. In 2014, Ponooc became ESTechnologies’ major shareholder to strengthen the company’s market position and to provide the financial means for further expansion. This private equity firm is linked to the Pon Group and mainly invests in companies that focus on sustainable mobility. In total, 65 companies are part of the group.

Green propulsion

Meedendorp explains the realisation of ESTechnologies:

“In 2009 we made the conscious decision to specialise in hybrid solutions for the commercial maritime industry and to develop our own battery management system. We started the development of our product for maritime use, driven by our experience and technical understanding. Keywords were stability, hybrid, dynamic and non-timephased. Our product is a green way of propulsion.”

“Energy taken from generators or main engines is often only used for 30 per cent, which is inefficient and means high investment costs and maintenance costs”, he continues.

“Storing energy is difficult, that is where our main focus lies.A lead battery is not suitable to dynamically store and release energy, but our battery is. We buy our lithium polymer battery cells in Korea, and customise them. Our battery management system prevents overcharging, continuously balances energy in the cells, ensures longer life expectancy, and is better for the environment that conventional mostly passive systems. A battery consists of several cells, you always have one best cell and one least cell and to store the energy, it need to be balanced. Our battery is able to actively balance in real time. The efficiency of our batteries is 98 per cent, which is quite high.”

Something needs to happen to reduce CO2 according to Meedendorp:

“To do so, you need technology and efficiency; if you save on one side, but spend the those savings on the other side, the efficiency is zero. We are driven by saving on fuel costs, maintenance costs and reducing too much power. When looking at DP2 or DP3 vessels, for example, if 250 kW is needed, a generator of one MW is placed because of the peaks. In the background, another, identical system is running due to the DP2 requirements, because when the first system fails, the second system needs to pick up almost right away. When we can place our batteries in between, the second system can be left turned off, because in the case of failure the batteries take over for a while and when the failure cannot be fixed, the second system can be turned on. Lloyd’s Register is currently in the process of certifying this.”

Projects

ESTechnologies’ batteries are travelling the world: “We are involved in two projects in Italy with Perini Navi, we equip a 38 metre sailboat with a headboard DC with conversion, batteries and a power management system and the same is supplied to a 70 metre sailboat, plus a variable speed drive generator. Another two projects in Italy involve 45 metre electric motor vessels, for which we delivered half a MW per yacht. And we are also in the process to be contracted for a battery system used for the nights of three MW for a 100 metre yacht. We have an agent in Italy, and have contacts with all big yachting yards there.”

Batteries are also very suitable for tourist vessels. In the canals of Amsterdam alone 140 vessels each sail about eight rounds per day. 90 per cent of the time, these vessels use not even 20 per cent of their capacity and the pollution due to the vessels is quite extensive, according to Meedendorp.

“Together with the Canal Company, we exchanged the diesel engine of the Jan van Riebeeck, a 44 year-old vessel, for our 68 kWh battery system last year. It is a hybrid system, the vessel can sail for three to four hours on batteries and after that will be charged again within 45 minutes through a diesel generator set.”

Two other projects ESTechnologies worked on over the last two years by order of Waternet (the water company for Amsterdam and the surroundings, that supplies tap water, takes care of the discharge of waste water, maintains the water level and keeps the surface of the waters clean were the battery-powered electrically propelled workboat WN21- “The first workboat in the world that achieved the bollard pull test using batteries without a generator,” Meedendorp says with pride and the hybrid patrol vessel Waterspreeuw built by Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld, that both were supplied with a complete Floattech energy system and an ESTechnologies battery system consisting of 13 EST lithium polymer batteries with a total capacity of 675V/136 kWh.

The system on the WN21 not only powers the vessel itself, but also the crane and the winches. With the WN21 Floattech was the first to use VISEDO products in a marine project for the propulsion and for the NPS variable speed generator.

ESTechnologies’ battery systems are not only popular in the maritime world, explains Meedendorp: “We cooperate with a MAN dealer for hybrid trucks, we started initial talks with a large grocer to let its trucks drive the last few kilometres in the city on batteries, and the Dutch Ministry of Defence uses our deployable power module during the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Camp Castor in Mali.”

ESTechnologies supplied an energy storage unit with 26 lithium polymer batteries joined in series with associated standard conversion techniques, which is linked to 250 kW generators and to 2,000 square metres of flexible solar panels. The batteries are charged by the solar panels, and if needed by diesel-powered generators. This is controlled and switched automatically by the deployable power module. Excess energy obtained from the solar panels during daytime can be stored and used at night. It is the first time Dutch forces use a sustainable energy system in operational circumstances.

Meedendorp: “This helps to significantly reduce the use of diesel in the camp, resulting in major financial, logistical, and operational benefits. This project is a real joy for me, five years ago I started with a little sketch and now our batteries are used in Mali!”

Renewable partnership

Together with three other companies in the province of North-Holland, WES (wind energy), Tocardo (tidal energy) and ZON Energie (solar energy), ESTechnologies started the initiative ‘130 Renewables’ in July 2013 to connect sustainable energy sources. The goal of the project is to realise and accelerate a sustainable development in North-Holland. “We want to combine our strengths to store available renewable energy and release it in phases. Our business case is that if there are only wind turbines of one MW, but only 500 kW is used, the excess energy cannot be stored and is lost. With our batteries however, it can be stored and the other three companies are able to achieve two to three times more return because they can store their energy. For this project we plan to set up an off-grid test centre at the Afsluitdijk.”

Corporate social responsibility

Not only ESTechnologies’ product is sustainable, being sustainable also means paying attention to corporate social responsibility.

Meedendorp: “As soon as we start the extensive production on our premises, I would like to employ the ‘forgotten group of men’, as I like to call them. It is a group of men aged 50 plus with aged education in this area that were used to work hard during long days in the construction industry, but due to the crisis were dismissed and now are at a loose end. They cannot easily find a new job, due to their age, the changed market and use of technologies they do not know. Assembling our batteries, however, is not very hard to do. I already started talking to the municipality and the province about this idea. I would be very proud if I can help them by giving them a new goal in their life.”

Gail van den Hanenberg