In the same way that the airline industry has benefit from the use of composite materials to reduce fuel emissions, the marine transport can take advantage of many of the same characteristics and more, to enable clean shipping.

This feasibility study focuses on the efficiency savings and upscaling that can be achieved through the application of composite materials across a maritime propulsion system. Not only will this directly reduce greenhouse emissions and enable the transition to low emission and zero carbon energy systems such as batteries, fuel cells or hydrogen, but it will also grow the national maritime supply chain, provide more UK jobs and benefit the economy through increased exports.

Teignbridge Propellers International is a world-leading designer and manufacturer of bronze-cast precision performance propellers, stern-gear and propulsion products. Teignbridge will apply their maritime industry expertise to improved design and modelling of a scalable propulsion system with propeller diameter up to 6m.

The National Composites Centre, as a core part of the core High Value Manufacturing Catapult, aim to accelerate the growth of UK industrial output by enabling design and manufacturing enterprises to deliver winning solutions in the application of composites. This project partner will bring their expertise to support this new application of composites through material selection, manufacturing process selection, composite design techniques and testing guidance.

The main output of this feasibility study will be a preliminary design for a composite propulsion system, maximising the opportunities and benefits of composite materials to improve efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enable the use of low density and zero carbon fuels. The commercialised propulsion system will help maintain the UK as a major maritime nation, growing the UK supply chain through improved and competitive products that target the global shift towards zero emission shipping. This will result in more UK jobs and further economic benefits from increased exports.

The study will also produce the route-to-market business case, plan and investment requirements for progressing the upscaled propulsion system design through to demonstrator phase on a UK vessel. The business case will consider not just the on-vessel emissions savings but also an assessment of the materials and processes used across the lifecycle of the propulsion system to truly understand the sustainability of the proposed solution.