Hydrogen production ship

Abstract

To provide a hydrogen production ship moored on the seabed by only mooring cable.SOLUTION: A hydrogen production ship comprises a water turbine type propeller 2 driven by surface ocean current, a power generator driven by this water turbine type propeller, a water electrolyser 4 to obtain hydrogen by the acquired electric power, and a mooring cable to moor the ship at a prescribed position. This mooring cable comprises a ship bottom mooring chain 6, a mooring rope 7, and a display buoy 8. One end of the ship bottom mooring chain is fixed to an overall center point 9 of hull buoyancy at the ship bottom, and the other end of the chain is attachably and detachably combined with one end of the mooring rope. The other end of the mooring rope has an anchor 10 to moor the hull at the seabed. The display buoy is combined with the combining portion between the mooring rope and the ship bottom mooring chain via a rope 81.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technology that converts ocean current energy into electricity, uses that electricity to produce hydrogen gas, and then uses that electricity to charge a battery, storing the electrical energy in the form of hydrogen gas and a battery. The hydrogen gas can be used as a fuel source for hydrogen fuel cells or hydrogen engines, and the electricity can be used to charge the battery, which in turn can be stored in the form of a battery, thereby providing an almost infinite carbon-free energy supply. [Background technology]

[0002] Japan has aimed to become an industrial nation despite its scarce natural resources, and is now one of the world's leading industrial nations. However, this means that we are purchasing and consuming various fossil fuels and mineral resources, including oil and coal, from all over the world. However, this is clearly a factor in global warming, and the transition from fossil fuel energy to sustainable renewable energy has become an urgent issue. One solution to this problem is biomass jet engine power generation technology, but there is a limit to the total amount of heat that can be sustained, and biomass alone has a limit of about a few percent of the total amount required.

[0003] On the other hand, if we shift our perspective from the mountains to the sea, we find inexhaustible energy resources, such as the energy of ocean currents, such as the Kuroshio Current. Generating electricity using these ocean currents would enable a large generating capacity (MW) and a large annual total power output (several tens to hundreds of teraWh), making it a promising renewable energy generation method. Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a specific technology for utilizing this enormous energy. Conventional technologies for practical application of tidal current power generation can be broadly divided into the following two types. The first is a method of converting tidal energy into electricity using a fixed installation on the seabed (ground) (seabed-mounted fixed-type submarine transmission line method). The second is the offshore multi-point fixed mooring type. This is the same surface tidal current type multi-point fixed support anchor floating object mooring method as offshore floating wind turbine power generation equipment, and uses a submarine power cable system. The above two construction methods must be carried out during times when the tidal current is not flowing. However, ocean currents do not have stagnation points or intertidal zones; they simply flow leisurely and steadily forever. In fact, there is no technology that can drop multiple fixed anchors on the seabed more than 1,000 meters deep.

[0004] The numerous tidal power generation methods that have been attempted to date have all involved fixed installation methods, multi-point fixed mooring methods, and seabed anchoring methods using foundation piles, but even if attempts are made to harvest ocean current energy in the open ocean of Japan's Pacific Ocean or the Sea of ​​Japan, these have been imaginary and unrealistic from the standpoints of economy and construction technology. In other words, the means of construction on the ocean surface at depths of 1,000 to 4,000 meters in the open ocean do not actually exist. The purpose of this invention is to develop a technology that collects and utilizes the ocean's nearly inexhaustible ocean current energy resources while coexisting with the harsh natural environment. This technology does not operate in rough seas, but rather the hydrogen production vessel moored deep under the ocean floor quickly returns to its home port and waits for the storm to pass, making it a retreat-type, nature-harmonized technology.

[0005] In other words, the present invention does not belong to any of the above, but is a technology for a hydrogen production ship that is moored in an ocean current with a single "anchor." The ship is moored against the ocean current and exposed to the wind, and harvests the energy of the surface ocean current, converts it into electricity, and then converts it into hydrogen. For example, in the event of a typhoon, the mooring ropes are released and the vessel returns to its home port under its own power, leaving only the indicator buoy (float) on the surface of the sea, which emits light, audible signals, and a warning sound.

[0006] To resume operations, the ship will sail under its own power from its home port to the marker buoy after the typhoon has passed, operate the onboard equipment to pull up the buoy, connect the mooring rope to the bottom mooring chain, moor the hydrogen production ship back to the surface of the sea, and begin generating electricity again using ocean current energy.

[0007] The above is the background of the technology related to the present invention, and a specific document is the below-mentioned Patent Document 1. The invention related to Patent Document 1 uses a power generation device G that is installed underwater and can generate electricity using tidal or ocean currents, which are renewable clean energy sources, and uses the generated electricity to inexpensively produce hydrogen gas in an onboard hydrogen gas production device in the installed sea area, allowing it to be transported by sea to a destination, or to inexpensively charge a large amount of discharged batteries and efficiently transport them to a destination.

[0008] In other words, a floating base is set up in the ocean near a power generation device that uses tidal currents to generate electricity, the electricity generated by the power generation device is wired to the float base using underwater power line cable K, and a ship anchored near the float base has a power line connector set up on the surface of the float base, which in turn has an aerial power line connector connected to the ship's side connected to a connector using a movable arm device, and electricity is used on board to generate hydrogen gas through water electrolysis in a hydrogen production device, which is pressurized and filled into a hydrogen gas high-pressure container, which is then transported to land, thereby utilizing tidal energy as hydrogen gas. Therefore, even if there is a considerable distance between the power generation device and land, there is no need for a long power transmission cable. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0009] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2016-100970 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0010] However, the prior art described in the above document has drawbacks in that the equipment is complex, heavy, and large, resulting in high construction costs, and since this expensive equipment is simply moored to the seabed, no measures are taken to protect it from bad weather, so it is often unable to withstand wind and waves, and there is a risk of it being destroyed or sinking if it encounters a typhoon, etc. Furthermore, there is also a problem of poor power generation efficiency, as no measures are taken to properly maintain the positional relationship between the turbine and the direction of the tidal and ocean currents. [Means for solving the problem]

[0011] The present invention is a hydrogen production ship that utilizes surface ocean current energy. a power generator driven by the power source; and a water heater that generates hydrogen using the power from the power generator. The electrolysis device and the vessel are positioned to harvest the surface ocean current energy with the driving source. The wind turbine generator will generate electricity for purposes other than hydrogen production. The drive sources are provided in pairs at the front and rear of the ship in the direction of travel. The mooring rope is made up of a ship bottom mooring chain, a mooring rope, and an indicator buoy. One end of the bottom mooring chain is fixed to the overall center of the hull buoyancy at the bottom of the ship, and the other end is fixed to the The mooring rope is detachably connected to one end of the anchor rope, and the other end of the anchor rope is used to anchor the ship to the seabed. Furthermore, the mooring rope and the ship's bottom mooring chain are connected with the anchors. The indicator buoy is connected via a rope, and the hydrogen production vessel itself is the only one connected to the mooring rope. The present invention provides a hydrogen production ship that is moored to the seabed by a rope, thereby solving the above-mentioned problems. Decide.

[0012] The present invention also provides a hydrogen production ship as described in 0011 above, which is provided with a hull position control mechanism, which is composed of a plurality of high-pressure pumps that produce high-pressure water, a plurality of high-pressure water outlets corresponding to the high-pressure pumps, and control means that controls the ejection of high-pressure water and automatically corrects the position of the hull, thereby providing a hydrogen production ship that can properly maintain the positional relationship between the propeller turbine and the direction of the ocean current, thereby solving the conventional problems.

[0013] Furthermore, the present invention provides a hydrogen production ship as described in paragraphs 0011 or 0012 above, in which the mooring ropes are made of carbon fiber, thereby properly maintaining the slack in the mooring ropes in the sea when moored, and / or properly maintaining the angle between the mooring ropes and a straight line hanging down from the overall center of buoyancy at the bottom of the ship to the seabed when the ship is moored, thereby enabling the propeller turbine to efficiently capture ocean current energy.

[0014] Furthermore, in the hydrogen production ship described in any of paragraphs 0011 to 0013 above, the blades of the propeller turbine are made replaceable, allowing the selection of blades with an elevation pitch that corresponds to the ocean current speed in each season. By replacing the blades according to the ocean current speed in each season, a hydrogen production ship is realized that can respond appropriately to the ocean current speed without having to deliberately prepare an expensive and complex pitch variable mechanism. [Effects of the Invention]

[0015] The present invention has the effect of being able to effectively harvest ocean current energy by the above configuration. Compared to the tides that flow near land and whose speed changes dramatically with the phases of the moon, The currents hardly change in speed due to the phases of the moon, and their scale, for example, the Kuroshio Current, is It is a huge entity with a width of approximately 75 km, a depth of 500 m, and a current speed of 3 to 5 knots. Therefore, it has been extremely difficult to efficiently harvest the energy of such ocean currents. This is, of course, due to the fact that the area is in the open ocean, away from land, where ocean currents make it nearly impossible to build structures for energy harvesting. The present invention, with its above-described configuration, makes it possible to effectively harvest ocean current energy even under difficult conditions related to ocean currents. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] 1 is a plan view showing a main part of a hydrogen production ship according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a side view showing a main part of the hydrogen production ship shown in FIG. [Figure 3] 3 is a side view showing the state of the hydrogen production ship shown in FIG. 2 moored to the seabed in an ocean current and the change in the ship's position due to the swinging of the mooring ropes. FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the effect of crosswinds on a moored and operational hydrogen production ship. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the additional anchor installation work. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the preparation state for the work of releasing the ship-side end of the mooring rope. [Figure 7] This is an explanatory diagram of the state in which the connection part of the bottom mooring chain and the mooring rope is captured on board the ship. [Figure 8] This is an explanatory diagram showing the process of releasing the connection between the ship's bottom mooring chain and the mooring rope, connecting an indicator buoy to the end of the mooring rope, and throwing it into the sea. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] The hydrogen production ship according to the present invention has two propeller turbines attached to each side of the ship in the fore-and-aft direction, facing the ocean current. The propeller turbines have blades with 180-degree twist angles that are opposite each other so that they rotate clockwise and counterclockwise, and the left and right gears are connected to a through-type shaft by a Kasaba speed-increasing gear. The through shaft is fitted with a speed-increasing silencer (spur tooth) chain sprocket, the tip of which is connected to an AC series motor (alternator type) by a silent chain. This motor can instantly switch between functioning as a generator or motor by controlling the current flowing through the field coil.

[0018] The hydrogen production ship in question does not supply any electricity outside the ship, nor does it require any power reception from outside the ship. The electricity generated on board will be used only for onboard hydrogen production, onboard consumption such as lighting, controlling the ship's own attitude and position, and charging batteries for the return to home port. Therefore, there is no need for equipment such as power cables connected to the outside of the ship. Hydrogen is produced using electricity generated by ocean currents, filled into tanks, and transported to the required location for use. In this way, there is no need for undersea power cables or anything like that.

[0019] Furthermore, unlike tidal currents, ocean currents do not have intertidal areas. The influence of the moon and the tides is extremely weak. Therefore, unlike tidal currents, construction methods that utilize intertidal times cannot be used at all when utilizing ocean currents. The main currents of ocean currents (such as the Kuroshio Current and the Tsushima Current) flow leisurely and steadily at points several kilometers to several tens of kilometers away from the shores of land and remote islands. In the past, these currents required extensive foundation work and undersea burial works (such as the laying and burying of undersea power cables), which resulted in high construction costs and equipment materials, making it difficult to harness the energy of ocean currents in terms of feasibility and economic viability.

[0020] As a practical matter, deep-sea construction beyond 1,000 meters is not only impossible, but typhoons and high waves could potentially damage the equipment and even human lives. The hydrogen production vessel of this application uses a mobile, moored, temporary power generation system and an onboard hydrogen generation system to generate hydrogen using electricity generated by ocean currents, rather than a fixed system, and utilizes this power for various purposes. The vessel's hull is secured to the seabed with anchors and mooring ropes using a low-cost, safe method, allowing for efficient harvesting of ocean current energy. Furthermore, a significant advantage is that the vessel can use its own onboard work space and equipment to attach and detach the carbon fiber anchor ropes and return to its home port under its own power, allowing it to evacuate in bad weather and undergo repairs to the hull and other equipment at the home port dock.

[0021] The hydrogen production ship according to the present application can be designed to have a self-propelled return route distance of several tens of kilometers to less than 100 kilometers, and a maximum self-propelled speed of 5 to 10 knots per hour, which is approximately two to three times faster than the ocean current speed. Furthermore, there are numerous optimal locations for installing hydrogen production vessels with a power generation capacity of approximately 1-10 MW in the waters surrounding Japan, and it is no exaggeration to say that the total amount of resources is inexhaustible, enough to cover the entire energy demand of Japan. However, it is also true that such locations are often located in favorable fishing grounds or in the middle of frequently used shipping routes. However, even in these locations, the hydrogen production vessel of the present application can be operated in a variety of ways, such as operating only outside of the fishing season, temporarily installed outside of shipping routes, or operating only during the day and withdrawing and returning to port at night, leaving only an illuminated transmitting buoy.

[0022] Most conventional tidal and ocean current power generation devices require extensive construction work on the seabed, which incurs significant costs that often exceed the total lifetime profits from power generation. As a result, there have been numerous cases where projects have failed to be implemented at the planning stage, resulting in the abandonment of the project. The present invention provides a technology for utilizing ocean current energy that does not require any complicated seabed construction work. Although the present invention requires anchoring work on the ocean surface, it does not require any work work underwater or on the seabed. In fact, it can be said that it is virtually impossible to deal with the deep sea of ​​the open ocean at depths of 1,000 meters or more using conventional publicly known technology. Furthermore, the hydrogen production ship of the present application is equipped with a small and lightweight additional anchoring device on board, and although it does not have an anchor winching device, it has the feature of being able to easily drop an additional light anchor on board. In other words, if the ocean current speed increases during operation and there is a risk that the ship and the anchor will be swept away while moored, it will be necessary to increase the anchor capacity on board, but this situation can be easily dealt with by dropping an additional light anchor.

[0023] When mooring a hydrogen production vessel in the deep ocean, it is practical to fabricate mooring ropes several kilometers long, but lengths exceeding double digit kilometers are unrealistic, which hinders the appropriate harvesting of ocean current energy. The most difficult thing in this situation is the pitching of the hydrogen production ship due to swells (waves) and how to prevent the resulting drop in power generation performance. In other words, the torque conversion performance of a propeller-type water turbine depends most importantly on the alignment of the horizontal rotation axis with the direction of the water flow. Since misalignment can drastically reduce power generation performance, maintaining this alignment on a single axis has a major impact on power generation efficiency.

[0024] The hydrogen production ship according to the present application is secured to the seabed by a single mooring rope. When the ship is moored by this single mooring rope anchoring method, the horizontal force (drag) of the ship being pushed by the ocean current and the force (height mooring angle) that holds the ship in place are balanced, allowing the ship to float at rest. The component force of the mooring rope pulling back {vertical component force of the inclination angle = anchor sinking force (weight of anchor - volume of anchor)} is applied to the mooring pin at the center of buoyancy of the hull, pulling in the direction of sinking the ship. With this balance of forces, the propeller shaft operates in a regenerative braking state, rotating the generator and generating electricity. Thus, the ideal state is when the horizontal force component is more than twice the vertical force component, with the limit being an equal ratio state.

[0025] In the present invention, the mooring rope must be made of a new, strong, and lightweight material, carbon fiber. Lightweight, thin, and with high tensile strength, the mooring rope must be unaffected by prolonged exposure to seawater. To give the actual dimensions of this mooring rope, the weight of a 500-ton tensile-resistant rope (in air on land) is within 1 ton / km, while the weight in water is 0. Therefore, the outer diameter must be within 5-8 cm. A balance of lightness and weight (buoyancy) that allows the rope to neither float nor sink in seawater is crucial for the practical application of the present invention.

[0026] As mentioned above, there is a fundamental difference between ocean currents and coastal tidal currents. One is that tidal currents can stop flowing (weakened intertidal currents), while the nature of tidal currents is that they fluctuate greatly in speed due to the gravitational pull of the moon and the ebb and flow of the tides. On the other hand, the nature of surface ocean currents is that they fluctuate slightly depending on atmospheric pressure and wind direction, regardless of sunrise or moonrise or moonset, and there is almost no change in flow speed, with fixed points flowing at a constant speed all year round. However, when tropical cyclones form and arrive, they are extremely affected by long-period waves (swells) from very far away, which is how ocean currents are used to harvest energy. This swell causes the misalignment (pitching misalignment, rolling misalignment) between the axis of rotation of the propeller turbine and the axis of the ocean current, which results in an extreme decrease in power generation efficiency.

[0027] Therefore, hydrogen production vessels operating in the open sea will be affected to varying degrees when a tropical depression (typhoon) occurs, and will return to their home port at this point. It should be noted that among renewable energy sources (green energy resources), ocean current energy has the following noteworthy characteristics: 1: It exists in a nearly inexhaustible amount regardless of day or night, windlessness, lightlessness, etc. (It is an ever-present green energy source) 2: It has outstanding values ​​for availability and stability among renewable energy resources. It can operate continuously 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, we assume that actual operation will be approximately 250 days x 24 hours due to evacuation measures when tropical cyclones approach. This is a highly available and stable power source with outstanding performance even among renewable natural energy sources, but it exists in the deep open ocean, where power cannot be received easily. Therefore, in terms of productivity (compared to the size of the equipment), it can be calculated to be approximately five times more productive than solar power generation. Compared to wind power, it is 10 to 25 times more productive and is a high-quality, naturally renewable, sustainable resource that does not require any auxiliary heat sources. 3: At present, an average vessel size of 1 to 10 MW is considered appropriate.

[0028] Next, when a tropical depression (typhoon) occurs, its size, course, and other situational assessments are carried out during the day under instructions and orders from the hydrogen production ship's base port (nighttime work should be avoided as much as possible). This work process is 1: Power generation stopped 2: Stopping the water electrolysis hydrogen generator 3: Power is supplied from the charged battery to the generator side via a DC / AC inverter converter at a rotational frequency approximately twice the rotational speed of the regenerative generator. 4: The power-generating boat rotates at twice the speed of the propeller shaft during power generation, and paddles the rear of the hull at a speed that exceeds the ocean current. (Paddles the hull further in flowing water.) 5: The ship moves forward and the carbon fiber ropes used to moor the ship slacken. 6: After confirming that the mooring buoy is slack, the auxiliary rope is hoisted up using the auxiliary winch attached to the bow. 7: Secure the connecting crown that has been rolled up to the bow of the hull with a ring equipped with a bow release cam from the center of the hull buoyancy. 8: The mooring rope connection crown is lifted up using the crane device at the top of the bow, and the connection part of the crown is loosened and cut off. 9: Lower the crane and attach it to the buoy mooring rope hoist. Once the load on the mooring rope is applied, remove the crane hacker. 10: Throw the buoy in, reverse the buoy winch, and leave everything in the sea. 11: Up to states 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, the high-speed rotation of the propeller water wheel shaft and the jet reaction force from the rear high-pressure water nozzle are finely adjusted to ensure a delicate stationary fixed-point state for the time the ship can be maintained. After the rope is released, the rotation of the propeller water wheel is stopped for a moment. In other words, by creating a state where the current doesn't move the boat and there is no need to paddle the current to gain thrust, the boat will move 400 to 600 meters away from the two marker (float) buoys that were thrown into the sea.

[0029] From there, the propeller turbine is once again rotated at high speed to return to port (2-5 knots per hour divided by several minutes = 2-600 m). The reason this final step is so important is that the mooring ropes directly below the mooring end marker buoys and the end caps of the buoy lifting ropes are floating in the ocean current at the fixed release point, and the purpose is to prevent them from getting tangled in the blades of the propeller turbines on both sides of the bow.

[0030] The time required to complete the above steps (1 to 11) is just under an hour, and if the self-propelled vessel is located close to the operating location (10 km), it will return to the home port in about 1 to 2 hours. In the present invention, the hydrogen production ship is equipped with propeller-type wind turbine generators on the bridge and roof, which can be operated as an auxiliary power source or as an emergency power source. It is desirable to design the ship so that it can self-propel for several tens of kilometers using the energy generated by the wind turbines. Offshore wind resource conditions often coincide with ocean current resource extraction points, so there is no need to ignore them as resources, and it is best to use both sources in combination. However, it is desirable to have a structure in which the two-wing type device can be rotated and deployed around the center of the mast section in a folding manner, and can be stored after being deployed horizontally on the ship.

[0031] The stern of the hydrogen production ship of the present invention is equipped with a mooring device for connecting ships such as supply ships. This mooring device is made up of a recess formed across the entire width of the ship at the stern, with fenders around the perimeter, and a hydraulic device that rotates a telescopic arm, and pulls the ship to be moored together with a rope that is reeled out from the arm. [Example]

[0032] Further, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the main parts of a hydrogen production ship according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the main parts of the hydrogen production ship shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a hydrogen production ship, which is anchored at a predetermined location on the surface ocean current. The ship is equipped with a drive source that uses the surface ocean current as its power source and a power generation device that uses this drive source. A pair of turbines are installed at the front and rear of the turbines (directly facing the direction of the ocean current K). In this embodiment, a generator that also serves as a motor is installed. 4 is a water electrolysis device that produces hydrogen using electricity from a power generation device, and 5 is a seawater This is a membrane-type pure water production device that produces fresh water from hydrogen. The produced hydrogen is stored in a tank. It is piped and transported to the required location for various uses. 6 is a bottom mooring chain, the end of which is attached to the overall center of buoyancy 9 at the bottom of the hull 1. The other end is connected to the mooring rope 7 via a connecting ring 71. 8, 8 are indicator buoys, which are tied to the connecting ring 71 by buoy ropes 81, 81, respectively. In this case, 20 is for purposes other than hydrogen production, i.e., power for the operation of the hydrogen production ship 1, It is a wind power generation device that produces electricity for the above power sources, lighting, etc., and the blades Shows the folded state.

[0033] In order to harvest the surface ocean current energy with the propeller turbine 2 as a driving source, A mooring line is provided to keep the vessel in place, and this mooring line comprises a bottom mooring chain 6, a mooring rope 7, and a pair of indicator buoys 8, 8 as shown in Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 2, one end of the bottom mooring chain 6 is fixed to the overall center of buoyancy 9 (Fig. 2) of the vessel's bottom, and the other end is detachably connected to one end of the mooring rope 7, and the other end of the mooring rope 7 is connected to an anchor 10 for mooring the vessel to the seabed. In this embodiment, the mooring rope 7 is made of carbon fiber, which reduces the degree of slack in the mooring rope 7 when the hydrogen production vessel 1 is moored to the seabed.

[0034] The hydrogen production ship 1 also has a hull position control mechanism so that the propeller turbine 2 can always face the ocean current. This hull position control mechanism is composed of multiple high-pressure pumps (not shown) that produce high-pressure water, multiple high-pressure water outlets (not shown) provided on the outer periphery of the hull corresponding to these high-pressure pumps, and a control means (not shown) that controls the ejection of high-pressure water to automatically correct the position of the hull, thereby properly maintaining the positional relationship between the propeller turbine 2 and the direction of the ocean current.

[0035] As described above, the power generating device 3 in this embodiment uses a motor-generator. This is an AC series-wound generator (the same principle as a train motor during regenerative braking) This generator is also connected to a battery via an AC inverter. If a DC power supply is supplied, the propeller turbine 2 will rotate at a high frequency, and the flow of the ocean current will At this time, the generator This state is similar to that of a normal electric motor. The ship can exceed the speed of the ocean currents by obtaining the same propulsive force as a rotor-driven screw shaft propulsion system. and move forward

[0036] . In addition, by operating the high-pressure pump and high-pressure water nozzle that make up the hull position control mechanism attached to the rear of the hull, it is possible to perform positioning operations while hovering at a delicately slow forward speed or in synchronization with the ocean current speed.

[0037] In this embodiment, as mentioned above, a total of four propeller turbines 2 with large rotor blade areas are provided at the front and rear of the port and starboard sides so that they are submerged in the ocean current, i.e., so that the propellers face directly into the ocean current. When the ship is held in place by the mooring ropes 7, ocean currents collide with the propeller blades, generating a rotational torque via the rotating shaft. The rotating shaft has the port and starboard propeller blades twisted in opposite directions, so the through-rotating shaft installed between the left and right propellers rotates in the same direction.

[0038] In addition, in the hydrogen production ship according to this embodiment, the blades of the propeller turbine 2 are replaceable, allowing the selection of blades with an elevation pitch that corresponds to the speed of ocean currents in each region. In other words, the propeller blades are not made of cast steel with an integrated rotating hub, but are made of stainless steel with a three-dimensional machined finish. The propeller's variable speed pitch mechanism is complex and expensive, but as long as it is used in ocean currents, the variable speed pitch mechanism is not used very often. Therefore, it would be more rational to replace blades with different pitches only when necessary with blades that are optimal for the ocean current speed (those with different blade attack and pitch angles). In other words, the present invention is intended for ocean currents that flow at a constant speed, rather than for currents that change from moment to moment, and has the advantage of being able to replace propellers with those with the optimal pitch blades for each region or season, thereby achieving optimal performance.

[0039] Furthermore, in the hydrogen production ship according to this embodiment, the mooring rope 7 is made up of an upper part and a lower part that can be freely connected and separated from each other, and when separated, an auxiliary anchor is engaged from the upper end of the lower part (the end opposite the anchor) to seat it on the seabed, thereby realizing stable anchor mooring according to the situation.

[0040] 1 and 2, the bottom mooring chain 6 has a length that runs from the overall center point 9 around the front of the bottom of the ship to the bow top hook 11, and is connected to a connecting ring 71 at the end of the mooring rope 7. The indicator buoys 8, 8 are tied to the connecting ring 71 at the end of the mooring rope 7 by separate forward and backward buoy ropes 81, 81 so that they can serve as markers for when the mooring rope 7 is released from the hull and then pulled up again.

[0041] Taking the estimated tension during operation as an example for an inland current type device (assuming a maximum generating capacity of 1MW), the structure must be able to withstand a tension of more than 400t (including safety factors). (The four propeller-type water turbine blades require a total mooring tension of more than 160t) (assuming a maximum ocean current speed of 3-8 knots / hour). This is because the mooring rope 7 is fixed to a single anchoring point on the seabed by an anchor 10 at the very end, which is the weight of all the ropes, chains, wire end caps, connecting hardware, etc., plus the sag caused by ocean current drag, and the up and down vibration of the hull due to waves. Therefore, the weight of this anchor 10, minus its own buoyancy, will be more than 80 tons even at a horizontal angle of 30 degrees. This increases in a sine curve as the angle increases, and at 45 degrees, a weight of more than 180 tons is required (when various safety factors are taken into account).

[0042] In the present invention, in order to generate ocean current rotational torque on the blade rotation surface of the propeller-type water turbine 2 and rotate it efficiently, the propeller shaft must always be parallel to the ocean current flow axis (flow direction) and the hull posture must be kept synchronized on that axis, otherwise the generated rotational torque will fluctuate and the power generation efficiency of the generator (3 in Figure 1) will be extremely reduced. Therefore, the flow-receiving surface of the propeller turbine 2 must always be controlled so that it faces the ocean current axis vector. The ocean current axis and the propeller shaft axis must always be placed on the same synchronous axis. For this reason, the horizontal vertical axis of the hull must always be placed on the horizontal line connecting the bow and stern, and it is desirable to keep the line connecting the bow and stern (waterline) as horizontal as possible. In many cases, it may be necessary to install a movable water balance tank.

[0043] In other words, they dislike the vertical and horizontal swaying of the hull, eccentric sinking, and swinging. Above all, it is most important to keep the hull itself level. Here, we can see the difficulty of this phenomenon by comparing the ideal anchoring point, i.e., the length (depth) from the hull to the seabed, with the location of an undesirable anchoring point, i.e., anchor 10 in Figure 3. If the anchoring point is more than twice as far away in shallow waters down to the seabed, the angle between the horizon and the anchoring point will be less than 30 degrees, but if the seabed is deep, anchoring at a point twice the depth will be virtually impossible. In the deep ocean (the Kuroshio Current is closest to Honshu at 25-50km offshore), the average depth is about 4km. Therefore, the ideal rope length is calculated using the following formula: √5×8=2,236×4, which is effectively 8.45km.

[0044] This is the limit for currently available materials and construction methods, and it is thought that ocean current energy cannot be effectively harvested by the vessel at depths greater than this. In other words, the rope length is restricted and the angle often exceeds 30 degrees. In the deep sea near the anchoring point, the speed of the ocean currents often changes on the mooring rope 7. In other words, in the deep sea, the water current in contact with land flows slowly because it is constantly subjected to resistance from the land, and the upper surface currents tend to flow faster. Therefore, the mooring rope 7 extending from the deep sea to the surface layer undergoes complex changes in tension, and repeatedly loosens and relaxes.

[0045] In other words, there is no directional vector as tension in the mooring rope 7 itself, and only the swaying motion caused by gravity (slack) and the vertical tension of the rope due to ocean current friction is amplified. Conventional steel products (chains and wire ropes) are much heavier than seawater, and their slack is large to balance this out, but even a slight change in the deep ocean currents or surface ocean currents mentioned above can cause the ship's position to fluctuate between a large forward position, an intermediate position, and a retreated position. This phenomenon is a resonance amplification phenomenon caused by the weight of the mooring material, and it was impossible to avoid this meditative floating phenomenon with conventional materials. The ultimate method for avoiding the phenomenon caused by sag is to make the weight of the material equal to that of seawater. When doing this with steel, one method is to surround it with a buoyant material, but if the length is long enough to reach the deep sea, the surface area and external volume will be affected by the difference in resistance between the deep and surface ocean currents mentioned above, and there is no construction method that can be freely manipulated. In other words, it becomes thicker and heavier, and mobility is poor, making it unsuitable for practical use.

[0046] Therefore, to minimize sag, the essential elements for the optimal mooring rope material are that it be thin and light (approximate to the specific gravity of seawater), and carbon fiber is currently the optimal material. When a resonance tracking state occurs due to sag, the flow of water passing over the propeller turbine blade surface changes, causing a pitching phenomenon in which the rope rotates and stops repeatedly. This change in the hull turbine rotation speed is called the pitching phenomenon and is called power generation operation, and it is a ship operation technique that requires corrective control and correction. Furthermore, the simple mechanical vector of the hull mooring rope and the anchor point has a serious adverse effect on the hull itself.

[0047] In other words, the force holding the ship is the tension of the rope supported by the weight of the anchor transmitted 45 degrees downward, but this force is balanced by the resultant force of the force pushing the ship backward by the ocean current and the force pulling up due to the buoyancy of the ship, so that the force simply applied to the ship (fixed point of the mooring rope 7) is such that the mooring rope 7 is attached to the overall center 9 of the overall hull buoyancy, which has a pin structure with two perpendicular axes so that it can withstand the rolling point (rolling) of the hull and the pitching point (vertical shaking) of the hull. Mooring using only the mooring rope 7 of this application anywhere other than this center 9 is extremely difficult.

[0048] If this much force is concentrated at this overall center 9 and the angle becomes large, at some point the mooring will lose its vector directionality toward the horizontal axis. In other words, the hull will sway and become moored with an unstable orientation. This is a situation that the propeller-type water turbine generator of the present hydrogen production ship must avoid. Furthermore, on the open ocean, wind direction and strength change with each strong seasonal wind and atmospheric pressure pattern, creating forces that tend to blow the hull left and right, forward and backward. For example, as shown in Figure 4, crosswind Y causes hull 1 to deviate left or right from the direction of ocean current K. This causes a misalignment between the direction of the ocean current and the propeller axis, reducing the amount of torque generated by the propeller and resulting in a significant drop in generator output.

[0049] For this reason, as described above, the present invention is provided with a hull position control mechanism so that the propeller turbine 2 always faces the ocean current, and this hull position control mechanism is composed of multiple high-pressure pumps (not shown) that produce high-pressure water, multiple high-pressure water outlets (not shown) provided on the outer periphery of the hull corresponding to these high-pressure pumps, and control means (not shown) that controls the ejection of high-pressure water to automatically correct the position of the hull, thereby maintaining an appropriate positional relationship between the propeller turbine 2 and the direction of the ocean current. In other words, the hull position control mechanism, which is equipped with a ship's own position information acquisition system (GPS) and various sensors, is composed of multiple high-pressure pumps that produce high-pressure water, multiple high-pressure water outlets corresponding to these high-pressure pumps, and control means that controls the ejection of high-pressure water to automatically correct the position of the hull, thereby making it possible to properly maintain the positional relationship between the propeller turbine and the direction of the ocean current.

[0050] As described above, the hydrogen production ship of the present application is equipped with precision equipment and therefore requires regular maintenance on a monthly or yearly basis. Therefore, the ship is designed to be self-propelled and return to its home port (dock) on a regular basis. The ship is equipped with four water-sealed shafts with ultra-low speed, large diameter shafts facing the open sea, so returning to a home port with dock functionality is also an essential element for replacement and maintenance. The return to port evacuation procedures during typhoons, etc., have been described above.

[0051] In this embodiment, the hydrogen production ship 1 can be anchored to the seabed by adding an auxiliary anchor as needed. That is, the mooring rope 7 is made up of an upper and lower part that can be connected and disconnected freely, and when disconnected, the upper end of the lower part (the end opposite the anchor) is engaged with the auxiliary anchor to anchor the hydrogen production ship 1 to the seabed. Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram of the additional anchor installation work. The indicator buoys 8, 8 shown in Figures 1 and 2 are raised and stored, and the end of the ship's bottom mooring chain 6 is anchored on the ship and the mooring rope 7 is separated. When the mooring rope 7 is further reeled in with the reel 12, the connecting ring 13 connecting the upper and lower parts of the mooring rope 7 appears. Next, the connecting ring 13 is unlocked, and an auxiliary anchor 14 is inserted through the open hole and engaged with the lower part of the mooring rope 7, and seated on the seabed.

[0052] The work of towing the hydrogen production ship from the ocean to the base due to maintenance, weather conditions, etc. has been described above. That is, as shown in Figures 6 to 8, the bottom mooring chain 6 is stored in a predetermined position, and indicator buoys 8, 8 connected to the ends of the mooring rope 7 are floated on the ocean. Figure 6 is an explanatory diagram of the hydrogen production ship 1 moored to the seabed in a predetermined ocean current. In the figure, the ends of the bottom mooring chain 6, buoy ropes 81, 81, and mooring rope 7 are connected to each other by small connecting rings 61, connecting rings 71, etc.

[0053] When the hydrogen production vessel 1 is to be released from its mooring to the seabed for towing, the connecting ring 71 is pulled onto the vessel, and the end of the bottom mooring chain 6 is cut off and anchored in place, as shown in FIG. 7. Next, as shown in FIG. 8, indicator buoys 8, 8 are dropped into the sea, causing them to rise above the sea surface S. These indicator buoys 8, 8 are engaged with the sea surface end of the mooring rope 7 via buoy ropes 81, 81 via the connecting ring 71. Therefore, to find the end of the mooring rope 7 at sea, all that is required is to locate the indicator buoys 8, 8. If the indicator buoys 8, 8 are equipped to emit light, radio waves, or other signals to facilitate their detection, this makes it even easier to find the indicator buoys. In this way, the hydrogen production vessel 1 can return to its original position at sea and quickly begin hydrogen production. [Explanation of symbols]

[0054] 1. Hydrogen production ship 2. Waterwheel propeller 3. Power generation equipment 6. Ship bottom mooring chain 7 Mooring rope 71 Connecting Ring 8 Display Buoy 81 Buoy Rope 9 Buoyancy Comprehensive Center 10. Anchor K Current flow direction F Sea level

Claims

1. 1. A hydrogen production ship that utilizes surface ocean current energy, comprising: a drive source powered by surface ocean currents; a power generation device powered by this drive source; a water electrolysis device that produces hydrogen using electricity from the power generation device; mooring lines for holding the hull in place so that the drive source can harvest the surface ocean current energy; and a wind turbine power generation device for obtaining electricity for uses other than hydrogen production, wherein the drive source consists of a pair of propeller water wheels attached to the front and rear of each side of the hull in the direction of travel, and the mooring lines comprise a bottom mooring chain, a mooring rope, and an indicator buoy, one end of the bottom mooring chain is fixed to the overall center of buoyancy of the hull at the bottom of the ship and the other end is detachably connected to one end of the mooring rope, the other end of the mooring rope having an anchor for mooring the hull to the seabed, and the indicator buoy is connected to the joint between the mooring rope and the bottom mooring chain via a rope, and the hydrogen production ship itself is moored to the seabed solely by the mooring lines.

2. 2. The hydrogen production ship according to claim 1, further comprising a hull position control mechanism comprising a plurality of high-pressure pumps that produce high-pressure water, a plurality of high-pressure water outlets corresponding to the high-pressure pumps, and control means that controls the ejection of high-pressure water to automatically correct the position of the hull, thereby properly maintaining the positional relationship between the propeller turbine and the direction of the ocean current.

3. 3. The hydrogen production ship according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mooring ropes are made of carbon fiber so that the degree of slack in the mooring ropes can be reduced when the hydrogen production ship is moored to the seabed.

4. 4. The hydrogen production ship according to claim 1, wherein the blades of the propeller turbine are interchangeable, so that blades having an elevation pitch corresponding to the speed of ocean currents in each region can be selected.

5. 5. The hydrogen production ship according to claim 1, wherein the mooring rope comprises an upper part and a lower part that can be freely connected and separated from each other, and when separated, an auxiliary anchor is engaged with the upper end of the lower part (the end opposite the anchor) to seat it on the seabed.

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