Western Producer- Shipping’s future looks back
In a new take on ancient technology, Cargill, one of the world’s biggest charterers of ships, is to add state-of-the art sails to a vessel early next year to test whether wind power can cut its carbon emissions, a top company executive said.
In a few years we can expect to find dozens of super tankers filled with oil becalmed in the Horse Latitudes. Another bright shining lie brought to you by the Greenies
Rather than reduce CO2 emissions, which are beneficial to the planet, how about reducing cost? A much more reliable measure.
Sails, not to decrease its’ GHG but to reduce the fuel spent on transportation. Let’s be honest. Cargill and any other corporation does not give a flying fig about GHG they just have to appear to look like they give a crap. Same with the Rainbow flag crowd.
Plus those juicy government subsidies are mighty tasty on anything pretending to be green!
Bingo. They’re just whoring around for $ome official gratitude.
It’s the 1970s all over again, right down to my straw turning to soggy paper mush before my drink is finished.
Headed back to the 1800’s with a bullet!
Sorry to say VOWG hut sometimes stupid people come in handy.
France and Europe are stupid enough that they are blowing up the Green Scam so spectacularly that even Canadian Liberal voters might catch on!
Still not far enough back for the Islamist crowd.
Yes … but what will those ships do when they’re sitting offshore for weeks … idling … while waiting to get unloaded?
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/theres-still-over-40b-in-cargo-on-container-ships-waiting-offshore
How much Co2 is spewing out of these ships while they wait, and wait, and wait to be unloaded?
However much Kenji its not enough. We need more CO2 in the atmosphere, not less. 1500 ppm would be a good number to help produce more food to feed the planet. And the climate will be just fine at that number.
Agreed. I’d say we’re fine as long as we keep it below 5000 ppm.
What did North America use for light before candles?
Electricity.
If you refuse to learn to code, you could always hire yourself out as a galley slave. It worked for Charlton Heston and Errol Flynn….. oh, I forgot–those were movies…..
Waterworld here we come!
At least all the enslaved rowers sitting in the galley beside me will be unvaccinated.
Yeah, but you’d have Dennis Hopper as the skipper…..
Learn to code.
If they were reporters you would need to use basic.
BADR
“The Ancient Engineers” mentions that it wasn’t to the Renaissance that there were galley slaves. Prior to that it was a well paid profession
And imagine the length of an oar for a container ship!
The Western Producer, still a Lieberal Party propaganda rag pretending to cater to farmers.
This isn’t a new concept. Pretty sure it was ‘Popular Mechanics’ that ran articles on wind generated power on merchant ships, probably back in the late ’60s(?)…
I think they were talking about vertical mast like turbines, to generate electricity to run motors, similar to diesel-electric subs.
Remember, as long as the ship is in motion there’s a 10-20knot wind blowing (maybe less if the ship’s running with the wind, but that’s where the engineering comes in.)
It would be similar to a hybrid car, and they DO work! Ask anyone with a Toyota Highlander or similar…
“Engine, Transmission, and Performance
The Highlander comes standard with a 265-hp 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, which pairs with an eight-speed automatic transmission and either front- or all-wheel drive. We haven’t driven this version yet, but when we do we’ll be able to comment on its performance. A 2.5-liter four-cylinder and two electric motors team up for a combined 243 horsepower in the Highlander Hybrid. This model comes with a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) and a choice between front- and all-wheel drive. Leveraging Toyota’s hybrid expertise, this powertrain provides buyers with something considerably more fuel efficient than the standard model without giving up much in terms of performance; at our test track, the last hybrid model we tested made it to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds. Handling is unexciting but stable, and the ride is perfectly suitable for family-chauffeur duty. Potential buyers in this segment will perhaps know that the Ford Explorer comes in hybrid form, too. But pitting these utes against each other, the Toyota comes out on top in terms of fuel economy.”
https://www.caranddriver.com/toyota/highlander
A few comments on so called hybrid vehicles.
1) Batteries: heavy, short-lived, limited charge, long charging times, limited life, expensive replacement, dependent on massive supplies of minerals and especially rare earths, dependent on China, expensive to charge. There is no upside to batteries. None.
2) A 2.4L engine producing 265 HP? That’s unsustainable. It’s running too fast, too hot, and has too much aluminum, and unreliable turbochargers.
3) A proper hybrid should run the IC engine at peak efficiency, constant RPM, and use direct drive the wheels. No transmission necessary.
4) Diesel is king.
Nothing new under the sun
https://youtu.be/LYQ2PiX_Z9o
That one’s 105 years old
No, conservation of energy means the wind driven turbine to run the engines would not work. The turbine would create more drag than the power it could provide, resulting in the burning of more fuel. It may have been done in the 60’s Popular Mechanics article, but at best it would be a convenient way to generate electricity for auxiliary systems.
In the 70’s they were full of artists conceptions of rigid wing like sails on cargo ships, but buried deep in the article they admitted nobody had figured out a way to make cargo handling work in between all the sails.
Flettner rotors offer a minor reduction in fuel costs for ships under certain wind conditions. They’re the only wind technology I’ve actually seen installed and working on a ship. I’ll also just gently point out that effectively sailing large tonnage ships required very large crews of highly trained sailors to constantly adjust and trim the sails in response to the wind. Modern rotor sails may not require large crews, but they can’t realistically be expected to drive a ship either. They work based on the Magnus effect, and only generate a small amount of thrust, and only perpendicular to the wind, (they’re round, so you can’t exactly adjust their angle of attack).
I also suspect that there’s a reason that the recent splash of announcements of “next gen” rigid sails, folding sails, and turbine sails exist primarily as computer animations. I think they’ll never be more than cool CG animations.
I can’t help but think that the wind mariners of the past few centuries – who constantly innovated and experimented with new sail plans – had very good reasons for not adopting rigid sails. I think that shipping companies foolish enough to invest in these new technologies will discover this to their cost.
If the sails are big enough to add more than a nominal thrust to the ship, they’re also large enough to endanger the ship in bad weather. In fact, I suspect that most of the designs I looked at would roll a ship over on its beam-ends in anything approaching a real blow if you failed to strike them quickly enough.
You guys should check out some vid of the current Americas Cup class hydrofoil cats, unbelievable stuff.
We’ll never see a wind driven hydrofoiling supertanker but wouldn’t that be fun!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQsXDdGxk3U
Minor point: It’s a monohull, not a cat, but they’re still very impressive. It’s amazing how much more efficient sails have become in the last 20-30 years. Also who’d have thought that a monohull sporting foils would beat a catamaran?
I can remember when 30 knots was a huge deal on a sailboat, but nowadays you can hit that on a windsurfer.
Of course! I meant to type “gecko” actually and somehow my fingers just typed as if it was a decade ago…
Chris, but how do you strike a Flettner Rotor?
You don’t strike a Flettner rotor, but some of the new proposed sails would roll over a flat hull in a capful of wind. The amount of leeway a ship with essentially no keel would make would also be pretty insane. Sometimes I think that these breathless technology stories are either written by morons or are just trolling readers.
Why the he’ll wouldn’t you put sails on a boat! Jets actively seek out favourable winds to lower fuel costs. Boats should do the same.
It’s got nothing to do with ghg and everything to do with being smart.
Well, yes but look at costs (capital and operational) and savings and reliability.
Wind is too unreliable.
Slave Power?
Now that might work,a fitting use for Gang Green.
As a bonus we can feed the fishes at the terminus of each sailing.
And it is not even mass murder,not in Green Speak,we just be reducing the population to sustainable levels..
And this is the future these parasites keep insisting we must embrace.
“All unvaxxed must row!”
Why noyt nuclear power? The SS Savannah was problematic because of all the anti-nuclear hysteria. But note US aircraft carriers and submarines are nuclear powered.
I remember there was a plan to put spinnakers on large boats a while back. The hope was to reduce fuel costs on the open sea.
Then you need crew who can read more than a GPS, compass and fuel gauge.
What’s next a coxswain, oarsmen and the lash?
https://www.marasinews.com/technology/rotor-sail-installations-growing-bulk-carriers
and this:
https://byjus.com/jee/magnus-effect/
ONCE AGAIN WITH FEELING. CO2 IS NOT A FREAKING CLIMATE DRIVER AND IF IT GETS TOO LOW WE ALL DIE.
This is not a new ideal. In the 80’s there was at least on cargo ship that had sails. 3 or 4 masts with big aluminum sails. They could fold up I think. The news story did say it cut back on fuel. How much I have no ideal. If I hadn’t tossed my World Book encyclpedia I could have find you a picture.