Echandia’s LTO battery system has been type approved by Bureau Veritas. The Swedish battery and fuel cell systems company’s solution was proved to meet the most stringent international performance and safety requirements, and customer requirements for service life and reliability, relating to 10 years of heavy operation without interruption.
“Echandia is the only company in the world to have a certified LTO battery system for marine use in tugboats,” commented Magnus Eriksson, CEO and founder of Echandia. “It is a breakthrough for safe LTO technology. As tugboats and ferries in local traffic increasingly become battery-powered, the future looks very bright.”
With passenger ferries and workboats often in operation for long periods, they need to be charged quickly. The energy storage systems (ESS) being developed are scalable, based on Toshiba’s LTO cells. They are air cooled and modular, and feature the most robust cell chemistry available. Damen Shipyards was among the first to utilize the battery system when building the first full-size hybridized tugboats.
“This is an important milestone for the new, stable, secure LTO battery technology. Certification for marine battery use is the most difficult to achieve, which is why LTO technology can now be expected to make an impact in several areas. Echandia already has type approval for its E-LTO system from DNV,” concluded Jacob Zeidler, project engineer at Echandia.
