The world's first standard modular battery-swapping ship,"Hetun Weilan 01,"was launched in the Wuhu section of the Yangtze River in East China's Anhui Province in April and recently it completed its finalization tests.
In an interview with Global Times,industry insiders explained the latest progress of the ship,which is nicknamed the"waterborne high-speed rail."
"We understand the concept of high-speed rail on water based on the development experience of rail transit from green-skinned trains to high-speed rail.The acceleration of high-speed rail benefits from the development of high-speed rail technology and the standardization and intelligent coordination of high-speed rail stations.We position the ship for reconstruction of the shipping efficiency system,"said Zheng Tianbao,chairman of Sandianshui New Energy Technology,developer of"Hetun Weilan 01."
According to the experts,ships that do not use battery-swapping mode require 5-8 hours of docking for charging under traditional charging modes.However,insufficient berth resources are a major bottleneck in China's inland shipping.Currently,the ratio of productive berths to ships nationwide reaches 1:15,severely constraining port throughput capacity.
"Adopting the battery-swapping mode significantly reduces the energy replenishment time for individual ships,effectively easing berth shortages and reducing users'energy replenishment anxiety,"Zheng said.
The PACK battery-swapping mode of"Hetun Weilan 01"enables the replacement of a single 430kWh standardized battery in merely five minutes,with the entire process of swapping six batteries for the ship controlled within 30 minutes.This increases the daily berth service capacity from 6-8 ships to over 12 ships.
Zheng said that the core technology filling a global gap is the"ship-vehicle-storage"shared standardized battery pack system,for which over 370 patents filed.This also marks the world's first application of automotive-grade motors in ships.Tests have shown an efficiency breakthrough of over 97 percent,achieving a comprehensive upgrade of the power system through standardized cabin design.
An industry expert interviewed by Global Times stated that in the global wave of transition towards green and zero-carbon shipping,new energy ship battery-swapping technology is becoming a core direction for breaking through the endurance bottleneck and cost pressures,but its development paths vary due to distinct technical divergences based on differences in application scenarios.
The expert noted that from an international perspective,the containerized battery-swapping mode represented by the Dutch company ZES is a mainstream direction of exploration.ABB has also launched a similar"plug-and-play"containerized energy storage system,which is rapidly promoted in medium-to-large in ports and near-shore shipping scenarios due to its advantages of high capacity and strong compatibility.
Although this technical route can effectively improve ship operational efficiency,it places high demands on infrastructure such as dedicated charging stations and heavy lifting equipment.It is only suitable for medium and large ports capable of large-scale transformation,making it difficult to cover the inland shipping network characterized by densely distributed tributaries and scattered terminals.
In contrast,the modular technical route represented by PACK battery-swapping in China is opening up a development path better suited to the characteristics of inland shipping,forming a differentiated supplement to international mainstream solutions.
The aforementioned expert stated that international solutions provide scalable models for ocean-going and hub port transportation,while domestic innovations represented by PACK battery-swapping precisely solve the transformation challenges of inland shipping,offering a replicable"Chinese path"for the green transformation of global inland water transport.
Zheng said this breakthrough will drive the development of a trillion-yuan industrial cluster.
The shipbuilding industry chain covers 20 major categories of the national economy and is highly synergistic with the automotive industry.Automotive industry cluster cities along the river can rapidly transform into ship supporting bases.
It is estimated that by 2028,the market size for battery-swapping equipment manufacturing will reach 120 billion yuan,and intelligent control systems will drive the development of chips and sensors.
The aforementioned industry expert told the Global Times that the core breakthrough of t"high-speed rail on water"lies in the miniaturization of battery units,enabling dynamic energy replenishment for ships via mobile battery-swapping vehicles without relying on heavy facilities at fixed terminals.This perfectly adapts to the distribution characteristics of China's inland waterways like the Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal,which feature"small terminals,multiple nodes."
Currently,this technology has achieved highly automated autonomous battery swapping,further improving operational efficiency and safety compared to international similar solutions.
Zheng believes that"Hetun Weilan 01,"powered purely by electricity,achieves zero carbon emissions,which will not only promote carbon reduction in the ships themselves but also empowers carbon reduction across the entire logistics chain.
