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Decarbonizing Shipping

 


It is a question that may not have occupied much of the brain energy of those of you who follow my humble blog, EVEN those of you who are concerned about and follow with some care issues about carbon emissions and climate change. 

How much carbon is emitted by all those commercial vessels in the ocean. Vessels travelling across the Pacific from, say, Shanghai, China to Long Beach, California, packed with consumer goods, automobiles, and so forth. Aren't they driven forward with diesel fuel? 

Are efforts underway to decarbonize ocean shipping? If so: how have they fared? 

I have looked into this in more depth that I care to expound upon just now. All I will say is:

1) Yes, such efforts are underway,

2) They may have made a modest contributions to the supply chain problems now being blamed on the Covid epidemic, but

3) the market is readjusting, and green shipping may be an industry-defining reality a lot sooner than green commercial transport on land. 

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  1. Paul D. Van PeltAugust 3, 2022 at 5:19 AM

    This is, certainly, an area of concern. But how might we address it? I can envision some ways, however one or more of those entail the 'law' of diminishing returns. We could build more nuclear powered vessels, for peacetime applications like shipping. But these are expensive and, like conventional ships, would presumably have limited useful lifespans. Possibly, we might re-visit wind power. I imagine work is being done there, though I don't know how much. I think of the fabulous sailing craft, depicted in the Costner movie, WATERWORLD. There are other projects, aimed at renewable power sources such as hydrogen. So, well---just thinking in script.

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    Replies
    1. ChristopherAugust 4, 2022 at 7:18 AM

      As an early step, a lot of progress has been made away from diesel toward LNG. Although still a carbon fuel, nat gas burns cleaner than the other hydrocarbon fuels. As more complete solutions, there are as you mention hydrogen cells. There is also the prospect of ammonia. Here's a discussion of ammonia's fuel prospects if you're curious. https://www.maholick.com/blog/post/green-shipping-ammonia-as-hydrogen-carrier-and-marine-fuel/#:~:text=Ammonia%20is%20generated%20by%20combining%20nitrogen%20extracted%20from,fuel%20is%20burnt%2C%20it%20produces%20no%20carbon%20dioxide.

      Delete
    2. ChristopherAugust 4, 2022 at 7:25 AM

      That https "link" doesn't work as a link. If you copy it and paste it as a URL, though, it will get you there.

      Delete

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