First electric riverboat for cold regions, "Ling Hang Zhi Xing," or star of navigator, is launched on tributary of northeast China's Songhua River on October 15, 2022. /Science Technology Daily
First electric riverboat for cold regions, "Ling Hang Zhi Xing," or star of navigator, is launched on tributary of northeast China's Songhua River on October 15, 2022. /Science Technology Daily
China launched its first electric riverboat for cold regions on a tributary of northeast China's Songhua River on October 15, according to Science Technology Daily.
The ship, designed for small-sized river cruises, is designed at a gross tonnage of 138 tonnes and can take 53 people.
By about 27 meters in length and six meters in width, it is equipped with four groups of lithium iron phosphate batteries with a maximum capacity of 600 kilowatt hours (kWh), which allows it to run for eight hours without charging.
Dubbed "Ling Hang Zhi Xing," or star of navigator, the riverboat is driven by two 60 kW permanent magnet synchronous motors. It is designed to travel at a speed of 12 kilometers per hour (km/h) with a trial speed limit of 18 km/h in deep still water.
As low temperatures impact negatively on the performance of the battery and charging equipment, this zero-emission intelligent ship is designed to function during extremely cold weather at minus 30 degrees Celsius at high latitude cold regions, providing alternative transportation on inland waterways.
The ship design is also one of many rollouts from a co-education project between Harbin Engineering University, the Harbin Electric Corporation and the Heilongjiang Shipping Group.