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Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

independent.co.uk

11–20 of 155 posts

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#11

Shipping is a pretty dirty industry, because of fuel quality they use and the general lack of oversight in the middle of the ocean. I was on the board of Corvus Energy ( http://corvusenergy.com ) while working in Norway, whose technology reduces CO2, SOx, NOx, and fuel consumption by up to 30%. One installation was the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars off of the road. Thankfully, there are developments in this space.…

If it reduces fuel consumption by 30%, wouldn't all ships want to have it? Is it too expensive, or what is the problem?

Shipping is a very conservative industry and hesitant to new things.

Time to investment payback was longer than many companies were willing to stomach, which was shortened thanks to Norway subsidies.

That said, they’re growing quickly, have a look!

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#12

I guess the new law reads "Can't release sulphur into atmosphere", so the shipping companies were thinking of ways around that. Why not say "Can't release … into environment", which would cover air, sea, ground, space and everything else around us?

They definitely should dump it outside the environment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#13
post #7

I was wondering what it would take to replace a current container ship by a sail boat, like a clipper. Apparently, each container ship has more or less a 100 times the tonnage of a clipper. Independently of the speed of the ships, the cost of the crews would probably kill the idea, except for goods with a very high margin, but there must a fuel price (including carbon tax) where this should become economically viable…

There are lots of experiments and even production ships with sails these days. Google for "sails on container ships" for lots of nice pictures and articles. The sails don't look like historic sails - they are often rotors that look like cylinders. Maersk's Pelican, for example, is supposed to get 10% from its rotor sails. Tangent: why do wind turbines look so conventional, with their propellers? There is a lot online…

Article from 2015: https://www.wired.com/2015/05/future-wind-turbines-no-blades

I guess they're still not feasible for some reason.

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#14
post #7

I was wondering what it would take to replace a current container ship by a sail boat, like a clipper. Apparently, each container ship has more or less a 100 times the tonnage of a clipper. Independently of the speed of the ships, the cost of the crews would probably kill the idea, except for goods with a very high margin, but there must a fuel price (including carbon tax) where this should become economically viable…

But maybe you don't need crews, and ships that big. Perhaps it would be viable to operate a semi-autonomous fleet of dozens or hundreds of medium-sized wind-powered ships; it's possible that wind turbines + battery + electric engine would be better than sail. A trimaran could accommodate wind turbines and a certain number of standard containers that would also act as ballast.

COLREGs probably prevent unmanned ships, but regulations can evolve if you can convince that there is an actual safety improvement (the ships could be coupled with satellites and flying drones to increase visibility/radar/tracking awareness).

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#15

I guess the new law reads "Can't release sulphur into atmosphere", so the shipping companies were thinking of ways around that. Why not say "Can't release … into environment", which would cover air, sea, ground, space and everything else around us?

They definitely should dump it outside the environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-front-fell-off/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker)

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#16
post #7

I was wondering what it would take to replace a current container ship by a sail boat, like a clipper. Apparently, each container ship has more or less a 100 times the tonnage of a clipper. Independently of the speed of the ships, the cost of the crews would probably kill the idea, except for goods with a very high margin, but there must a fuel price (including carbon tax) where this should become economically viable…

There are lots of experiments and even production ships with sails these days. Google for "sails on container ships" for lots of nice pictures and articles. The sails don't look like historic sails - they are often rotors that look like cylinders. Maersk's Pelican, for example, is supposed to get 10% from its rotor sails. Tangent: why do wind turbines look so conventional, with their propellers? There is a lot online…

I forget the details but vertical axis wind turbines are always less efficient than horizontal axis turbines. Off the top of my head I can't recall if the reason is that vertical axis turbines always have half of the rotor turning against the wind, but there is a basic reason I believe can be found on wikipedia.

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#17

Shipping is a pretty dirty industry, because of fuel quality they use and the general lack of oversight in the middle of the ocean. I was on the board of Corvus Energy ( http://corvusenergy.com ) while working in Norway, whose technology reduces CO2, SOx, NOx, and fuel consumption by up to 30%. One installation was the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars off of the road. Thankfully, there are developments in this space.…

Don't forget the noise pollution: https://www.marineinsight.com/environment/effects-of-noise-p... https://ocr.org/sounds/shipping-noise/

This is a big forgotten one. The sound of container ships as they go past on shipping lanes is colossal; if you're downwind you can hear them from 3/4 miles away quite well.

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They definitely should dump it outside the environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-front-fell-off/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirki_(tanker)

There was need for a Snopes fact check for that? Strewth.

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#19
post #14
post #7

I was wondering what it would take to replace a current container ship by a sail boat, like a clipper. Apparently, each container ship has more or less a 100 times the tonnage of a clipper. Independently of the speed of the ships, the cost of the crews would probably kill the idea, except for goods with a very high margin, but there must a fuel price (including carbon tax) where this should become economically viable…

But maybe you don't need crews, and ships that big. Perhaps it would be viable to operate a semi-autonomous fleet of dozens or hundreds of medium-sized wind-powered ships; it's possible that wind turbines + battery + electric engine would be better than sail. A trimaran could accommodate wind turbines and a certain number of standard containers that would also act as ballast. COLREGs probably prevent unmanned ships,…

The biggest question in regards to windpowered vessels is always "how do you deliver on time?". With logistics turning more to just in time deliveries to reduce warehousing a ship turning up a day late is not acceptable, which creates knock off issues with slot times in harbours not aligning and you either pay higher prices for later scheduling or having to pay for an unused slot.

This is not even taking into consideration the power requirements of chilled containers.

I'm all for making ships more efficient using wind, every percent is a win but the shipping industry is never going back to it as the main propulsion method.

The electric side is really interesting, it is viable in some cases today. I've done some napkin math about outfitting a traditional sailing ship I volunteer on with batteries from Corvus mentioned in another comment and it's completely viable today. Unless going for huge system needing a complete overhaul of the inside layout we would still need a generator for range above about 5-6 hours but that could run on carbon neutral HVO diesel.

Re: Ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the noise pollution: https://www.marineinsight.com/environment/effects-of-noise-p... https://ocr.org/sounds/shipping-noise/

This is a big forgotten one. The sound of container ships as they go past on shipping lanes is colossal; if you're downwind you can hear them from 3/4 miles away quite well.

I can only imagine how much disruption this have on whales which rely on "singing" to communicate. Probably similar to living near an airport.
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