...because marine fossil fuel engines are unbelievably filthy.
No marine boat has a muffler. Guess what they use instead?
Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
21–30 of 113 posts
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#22Unfortunately, like many vehicles electric boats are limited to new... no one offers retrofit parts, and it will take decades before enough of these trickle down to new owners for them to take the place of existing boats, even assuming the drives last that long. I'd convert my boat to electric in a heartbeat if I could retrofit the drive for a similar cost to a replacement engine/transmission... but that's still impo…
They seem to be selling an outboard engine and battery pack that goes on your outboard boat, so I'm confused by your comment. https://www.purewatercraft.com/pure-outboard/
They're selling a 25-40 hp equivalent.
My boat needs something like two 75 HP motors to run safely at displacement speeds, and much more to get on plane.
In case you're curious, it's about 10M long. You have to have a larger boat to travel away from shore with any safety... small boats have to stick to the coast. My boat isn't actually very big, and doesn't have the range or stability to travel between continents away from shore, either.
Electric scooters and electric outboards have been around for a while, they're okay for what they do.
However, what I would need (and most of the people who own boats larger than 5M long) is the equivalent of a tesla battery pack and motors... which aren't available.
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#23Just tried to find out some information on their Outboard motor. The video there has got to be up there with one of the worst marketing pieces I've seen in a long time. There's nothing that gives me any info on the product, what it is, why it's different, nothing. Looks like somebody had a fun day at the lake shooting, but had no idea what the footage was to be used for, and then some poor guy in the edit bay had to make something (maybe the same person?). It's right up there with the Fyre festival promos. They might as well have shots of a cheese sandwich rather than the guys in the row boats.
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#24I've always loved being on the water, but had a kind of instinctual revulsion at the gas usage, the fumes, the oil that leaks into the water, and the sheer noise from the engine -- like boating is about being with nature, but the gasoline aspect just ruins it for me. I tried sailing, but even then you need a backup motor and to get in/out of the oil-soaked harbor. (And sailing is a lot of work.) The idea of electric…
Why would they even have oil to leak? Oil is a lubricant for the extreme heat conditions of a combustion engine. This is just an electric motor. If you think about it, you don't put oil in a ceiling fan that runs 24/7.
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#25What this article is really saying is "Two stroke engines are outrageously nasty". Which we knew. They really are dozens of times worse for immediate pollutants (soot/particulates, hydrocarbons, NOx) than a routine car engine and catalytic converter. And they're significantly less efficient, so even their CO2 output is quite a bit higher than a gas engine of the same power.
But they're a tiny market and no one has bothered to try to regulate it. This just isn't a big thing from a save-the-planet perspective. But it's a nifty product.
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#26I've always loved being on the water, but had a kind of instinctual revulsion at the gas usage, the fumes, the oil that leaks into the water, and the sheer noise from the engine -- like boating is about being with nature, but the gasoline aspect just ruins it for me. I tried sailing, but even then you need a backup motor and to get in/out of the oil-soaked harbor. (And sailing is a lot of work.) The idea of electric…
Why would they even have oil to leak? Oil is a lubricant for the extreme heat conditions of a combustion engine. This is just an electric motor. If you think about it, you don't put oil in a ceiling fan that runs 24/7.
I mean, the buyer doesn't, but the factory does. Ceiling fans function with ball bearings that are oiled, same as bicycles function with chains that are oiled. Obviously oil doesn't get into the air, but contact with water is a different matter.
I have zero knowledge about boat motors but had always assumed the oil leakage had something to do with lubricating movement of the propeller that also prevented sea water from getting in and corroding internal elements. Is this wrong? Do electric boat motors function completely without oil?
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#27Electric cars don't reduce emissions from tyre and brake wear. These particles make up a huge amount of air pollution at a size small enough to cause health issues. Once they settle, they are swept into waterways and form the majority of our microplastic problem.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135223101...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/22/tyres-an...
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#28Electric cars don't reduce emissions from tyre and brake wear. These particles make up a huge amount of air pollution at a size small enough to cause health issues. Once they settle, they are swept into waterways and form the majority of our microplastic problem. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135223101... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/22/tyres-an...
What is the relevance to the article? I skim read it, was there a part to do with tyre wear I missed?
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
They seem to be selling an outboard engine and battery pack that goes on your outboard boat, so I'm confused by your comment. https://www.purewatercraft.com/pure-outboard/
They're selling a 25-40 hp equivalent. My boat needs something like two 75 HP motors to run safely at displacement speeds, and much more to get on plane. In case you're curious, it's about 10M long. You have to have a larger boat to travel away from shore with any safety... small boats have to stick to the coast. My boat isn't actually very big, and doesn't have the range or stability to travel between continents awa…
It's understandable that the first useful motors would be smaller than you seem to require. Big boats are fun and useful, but so are small boats. Someone will eventually make motors big enough for your needs. In the meantime, other boaters will enjoy the motors described in TFA.
If you want to "travel between continents", get a sailboat. No powerboat is practical for that. If you're just talking about a fishing trip, powerboats smaller than 10M can certainly get you out of sight of shore.
Re: Reducing pollution from boats by switching to electric motors
#30Electric cars don't reduce emissions from tyre and brake wear. These particles make up a huge amount of air pollution at a size small enough to cause health issues. Once they settle, they are swept into waterways and form the majority of our microplastic problem. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135223101... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/22/tyres-an...
Brakes on Tesla are said to last twice as long or more. That would be a direct reduction in brake dust. Even with my Model 3 being floored from every stoplight since I’ve bought it, I’ve yet to hear the tires chirp. Suspect the tire wear is less than a comparable gas car due to the better traction control, and the harder tread in pursuit of lower rolling resistance.