Be the first to comment!Innovative Solar Powered Catamaran Design at Discover University
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On the 10th November, during Discover University Open Week, and to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Engineering Degree in Malta, the Faculty of Engineering will have a special pavilion demonstrating the various exciting ongoing projects.
All are invited to spend the day on campus. Catering and parking facilities will be available. Access www.um.edu.mt/discoveruniversity for the full programme of events.
There will be three zones dedicated to the Biomedical, Environmental and Transport areas of Engineering. The Faculty of ICT and the Faculty of the Built Environment will also be represented, as these originally formed part of the Faculty of Engineering. The Chamber of Engineers will be holding talks in the pavilion, while various Engineering student associations and Engineering researchers will be answering questions by the public.
Following the success of the traditional electric boat, the Department of Industrial Electrical Power Conversion at the Faculty of Engineering designed and built a Solar Catamaran. This project, which is being sponsored by a number of governmental and industrial enterprises, will be also on show on the 10th November.
The Catamaran is designed to run on solar energy. It has a Fuel Cell on board that supplements photovoltaic energy in case of cloudy weather. The catamaran is powered by 6 high quality photovoltaic panels supplied by IBC Solar.
Two sets of 24V 100Ahr batteries using Abertax Intelligent Battery concept, are fitted for energy storage. All the necessary battery information, together with positional information is provided via a GPRS signal and is viewable on the internet. It is also intended to incorporate an autopilot in the future.
The Research Project Team consists of Professor Joseph Cilia (Project leader and contact person joseph.cilia@um.edu.mt) Mr Charles Azzopardi (Project manager) Professor Charles Pule,’ Ing. Daniel Zammit, Mr Donald Cassar, and Mr John Camilleri.
The Students who did their thesis work on the project are Ing. Neville Azzopardi, Ing. David Grixti, Ing. Ian Busuttil and Ing. Sarah Baldwin.
Photo – Intelligent Battery with an embedded monitoring system
