Work at sea is limited by how long a vessel can stay out. Gasoline needs a supply chain. Batteries need hours at a dock.
We are building vessels that carry their energy as metal, and are refuelled automatically along the coast.
Persistent presence at sea.
A stretch of coast is only covered if someone is always there. Our vessels are built to stay out, see what is near them, and hand over to the next vessel.
Detect
Radar, lidar and cameras pick up vessels of every size, from fishing boats to tankers.
Track
A vessel of interest is followed without a break, and handed from one of ours to the next.
Identify
Contacts are classified and flagged, so the people on shore see the ones that matter.
Stay out
Metal fuel and automatic stations mean the watch does not stop. One vessel refuels while another holds the line.
The coast we are building toward.
Our vessels keep watch in every direction, all the time. When one runs low, it returns to an automatic station for fresh aluminium while the rest hold the line.
- 0
- vessels on patrol
- 0
- returning to refuel
- 0
- refuelling at stations
- 0
- other vessels tracked
- 0
- flagged contacts
- 0
- contacts identified
Who it is for.
Coast guards and navies
Persistent surveillance of the coast, and early warning of unidentified vessels.
Port authorities
Watch over harbour approaches and traffic, with routine inspection around busy ports.
Hydrographic and survey teams
Long, steady passes over coastal waters and the seabed.
Fisheries monitoring
Cover for fishing grounds and protected waters, including activity where it should not be.
Why aluminium is the future of marine vessels.
The next marine vessels will be unmanned. They need a fuel that machines can handle, an energy system that needs no service, and enough energy to stay out. Engines and batteries each fall short.
The engine
The block is heavy, and it needs a gear train, cooling and a shaft to turn a propeller. Even then, a small gasoline engine turns only about a quarter of its fuel into motion. The rest leaves as heat and noise.
The battery
An electric motor removes the engine, the gear train and most of the noise. But a battery stores only about a fifth of a kilowatt-hour per kilogram, so it runs out in days and is too heavy to go further.
Aluminium
Aluminium keeps the electric drive and replaces the battery. The vessel carries its energy as metal, makes electricity on demand, and turns its propellers directly.
How much of the energy becomes motion
The engine loses most of its fuel as heat. An electric drive loses about half.
No engine block, no gear train
An electric drive is far lighter than an engine, its cooling and its transmission, so the weight goes into fuel instead.
Energy a battery cannot carry
Aluminium releases about nine times the electricity per kilogram of a battery pack. That is our estimate, to be replaced with measured data.
More energy in the same space
By volume, aluminium stores about two and a half times the energy of gasoline. After conversion to electricity it still comes out about 20% ahead per litre, and further ahead if the fuel is compacted.
A fuel a robot can handle
A stable solid has no spills, vapour or pressure, so stations can exchange it automatically and a vessel never needs a crew to fuel it.
Quiet, clean and on demand
Hydrogen is made as fast as the vessel uses it, so nothing idles. With no combustion there is no exhaust, and the vessel is hard to hear.
Made in India, and recyclable
India is the world’s second-largest primary aluminium producer. Spent aluminium can be recycled and made into fuel again.
Estimates: gasoline at 44 MJ/kg and 0.74 kg/L, with 20% of its energy reaching the vessel as electricity through an engine and generator. Aluminium as loose powder at 1.3 kg/L, making hydrogen at 90% yield, with a fuel cell at 50%. To be replaced with measured data.
The platform.
An autonomous twin-hull surface vessel. Its power bay takes either a battery module or a metal-fuel module, so the same vessel can work today and be upgraded as the energy system matures.
- Configuration
- Twin-hull autonomous surface vessel
- Length
- 2.4 m
- Beam
- 1.3 m
- Draft
- about 0.19 m
- Design displacement
- about 140 kg
- Propulsion
- Twin electric thrusters, differential steering
- Power
- Modular bay: battery or metal-fuel module
- Endurance
- 300+ hoursdesign target
Design basis for the prototype in build. Figures will be updated as they are measured.
Help us put the first vessels on the coast.
Tell us where you fit.
Invest
Back a team building hard technology for the sea, with a clear route from the first vessel to a coastal network.
Talk to us about investingPartner
Ports, shipyards, sensor and autonomy teams and research labs we can build, test and improve with.
Talk to us about partneringDeploy
Coast guards, navies, port authorities and survey teams who want persistent coverage, and want to shape the first deployments.
Talk to us about deploying