Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
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Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#2Wow. A 25% efficiency boost is huge, both for the shipping company and for the planet.
Wikipedia states that 3-4% of the global carbon footprint is shipping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...
Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#3Wow. A 25% efficiency boost is huge, both for the shipping company and for the planet. Wikipedia states that 3-4% of the global carbon footprint is shipping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...
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Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#4Wow. A 25% efficiency boost is huge, both for the shipping company and for the planet. Wikipedia states that 3-4% of the global carbon footprint is shipping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...
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Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#5Wow. A 25% efficiency boost is huge, both for the shipping company and for the planet. Wikipedia states that 3-4% of the global carbon footprint is shipping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...
CO2 is cut by 27% through a combination of systems. I think the MALS (air bubble) tech on it's own increases fuel efficiency by ~10%, based on the published papers, and you spend 2% of that gain on actually producing the bubbles.
Apparently break-even on the upgrade cost is reached within a couple months. They are also starting to put it in cruise liners [1].
[1] - http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/micro-bu...
Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#6This is great however I cannot help wondering if there will be any unintended consequences of extensive uptake of this technology. For example could this increase levels of O2/CO2/N2 dissolved in the worlds oceans upsetting the balance in an ecosystem? Even with the 20th century's long track record of unintended consequences this conversation still seems to be a rarity and when it happens is minimised by stakeholders.
Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#7Interesting. I know Navy vessels do this [1] but in their case, the motivation is to trap machinery noise and reduce the sonar profile of the vessel.
Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#8See also: Supercavitating Torpedo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-111_Shkval
Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#9This is great however I cannot help wondering if there will be any unintended consequences of extensive uptake of this technology. For example could this increase levels of O2/CO2/N2 dissolved in the worlds oceans upsetting the balance in an ecosystem? Even with the 20th century's long track record of unintended consequences this conversation still seems to be a rarity and when it happens is minimised by stakeholders…
Air bubbles in the ocean being a problem? Not a chance.
Waves make trillions (10^12) of times as much bubbles. (Not exaggerating about the trillion BTW, I ran some quick Fermi estimations to come up with that number.)
Re: Post-Panamax Bulk Carrier Rides Air Bubble Blanket to Reduce Emissions
#10Interesting. I know Navy vessels do this [1] but in their case, the motivation is to trap machinery noise and reduce the sonar profile of the vessel. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie-Masker
Articles say an 'unexpected benefit' is reduced prop noise. They did study the effect of bubbles on prop efficiency and apparently it is minimal, but noise is reduced significantly.