<
https://web.archive.org/web/20231030101006/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/30/business/economy/shipping-climate-change-green-fuel.html>
"On a bright September day on the harbor in Copenhagen, several hundred people
gathered to welcome the official arrival of Laura Maersk.
Laura was not a visiting European dignitary like many of those in attendance.
She was a hulking containership, towering a hundred feet above the crowd, and
the most visible evidence to date of an effort by the global shipping industry
to mitigate its role in the planet’s warming.
The ship, commissioned by the Danish shipping giant Maersk, was designed with a
special engine that can burn two types of fuel — either the black, sticky oil
that has powered ships for more than a century, or a greener type made from
methanol. By switching to green methanol, this single ship will produce 100
fewer tons of greenhouse gas per day, an amount equivalent to the emissions of
8,000 cars.
The effect of global shipping on the climate is hard to overstate. Cargo
shipping is responsible for nearly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions
— producing roughly as much carbon each year as the aviation industry does.
Figuring out how to limit those emissions has been tricky. Some ships are
turning to an age-old strategy: harnessing the wind to move them. But ships
still need a more constant source of energy that is powerful enough to propel
them halfway around the world in a single go.
Unlike cars and trucks, ships can’t plug in frequently enough to be powered by
batteries and the electrical grid: They need a clean fuel that is portable.
The Laura Maersk is the first of its kind to set sail with a green methanol
engine and represents a significant step in the industry’s efforts to address
its contribution to climate change. The vessel is also a vivid illustration of
just how far the global shipping sector has to go. While roughly 125
methanol-burning ships are now on order at global shipyards from Maersk and
other companies, that is just a tiny portion of the more than 50,000 cargo
ships that ply the oceans today, which deliver 90 percent of the world’s traded
goods.
The market for green methanol is also in its infancy, and there is no guarantee
that the new fuel will be made in sufficient quantities — or at the right price
— to power the vast fleet of cargo ships operating worldwide."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-women-rights-france-ntds-africa-bears-europe/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
