Pioneering wind-powered cargo ship sets sail
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Pioneering wind-powered cargo ship sets sail
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66543643
Inventors hope maiden voyage will help usher in new era of greener shipping.
But wind is unreliable, I'm excited about new hydro powered ships where the crew actually push the ship along using long water-pushing paddles.
This is fascinating, the sails look quite different from what I would have imagined given the name. Looks more like those ships with the rotating cylinders on them visually, even though of course those operated on a very different principle.
Excited to see how well this works. Would be amazing if they could slash fuel usage significantly, I remember reading even those oversized kites already did a fair bit.
Amazing, I was reading about the idea of them doing this a while ago. Makes me wonder if the future of shipping will see a return to some of the old trade routes that are more favourable for the winds.
This is pretty incredible! I hope more industries adopt this mindset and begin to find ways to combat climate change. It’s going to take all industries exerting this level of change!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Pyxis Ocean's maiden journey, from China to Brazil, will provide the first real-world test of the WindWings - and an opportunity to assess whether a return to the traditional way of propelling ships could be the way forward for moving cargo at sea.
Enabling a vessel to be blown along by the wind, rather than rely solely on its engine, could hopefully eventually reduce a cargo ship's lifetime emissions by 30%.
It was developed by UK firm BAR Technologies, which was spun out of Sir Ben Ainslie's 2017 America's Cup team, a competition sometimes called the 'Formula One of the seas'.
"This is one of the most slow-moving projects we've done, but without doubt with the biggest impact for the planet," its head John Cooper - who used to work for Formula One team McLaren - told the BBC.
"Wind power can make a big difference," says Dr Simon Bullock, shipping researcher at the Tyndall Centre, at the University of Manchester.
He said new cleaner fuels will take time to emerge "so we have to throw everything at operational measures on existing ships - like retrofitting vessels with sails, kites and rotors".
The original article contains 881 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Okay, some explanation, this is not exclusively wind powered but wind assisted. Sail is meant to aid in reducing fuel consumption. Design of the sail, which is what most people are finding odd, is as such to require very little management, since it's using Mesner effect it only requires adjusting speed and direction of rotation. At the same time design is such as to not hinder loading and unloading process. Also claimed 30% is grossly exaggerated.
Why hasn't this caught on yet you might ask? Well ship owners don't give a shit. Simple. The cost of fuel is calculated in transport cost and since no one else is doing it, why would anyone do it. Cargo ships have multiple fuel tanks and they will burn pretty clean fuel while they are in controlled areas (EU/USA). The moment they leave those areas they burn the dirtiest and also the cheapest fuel possible. Why wouldn't they when their engine's piston is so big human can lie in it. I mean just look at the crankshaft
So all in all, this could have been done ages ago. The sail is called Flettner rotor and has been invented in 1920s. Image on site shows a bit different design, but probably based on same physics just slightly more optimized. The reason why it wasn't done ages ago... well, simply fuel was too cheap and paid for by another.
I wonder how practical it would be to recommission old nuclear aircraft carriers as cargo ships
General rule for ships, at least heavily loaded ships, is to retire after some 60 or so years. There's no exact number but it exists for each type of ship. Reason is material stress. Even though ship might look okay, they have a lot of stress when transporting cargo or in general dealing with waves. In time, these stresses cause material stress and eventually fracture.
This is the reason behind those videos on YouTube where ship splits in half in high waves. It's not that ship can't handle high waves, it's simply that ship owner wanted to squeeze more money out of the vessel and didn't want to retire it, even though he was most likely advised to do so.
It is far more than that.
It needs to be cost effective (which might include profotabilit6), be feasible to implement, sustainable, and a bunch of other stuff too.
Aircraft carriers and subs being the only transportationethod using nuclear is a good sign that it isn't practical for shipping. That is likely a combination of nuclear requiring highly trained staff that are not just out in the work force, the ability to procure a reactor and maintenance parts, the ability to obtain fissible material, the ability to dry dock a ship with a nuclear reactor, and a bunch of other stuff that could even be affordable without being practical for reasons beyond costs.
We don't always do the most practical thing though.
For instance lateen sails are not the best sail design but is used by every sail manufacturer currently.
Best depends on many factors beyond things like efficiency, weight, or durability. Lateen sails are easy to implement with a single mast, are easy to store and maintain, and everyone that has sailed has experience with them. Other sails might do a better job of catching the wind, but with tradeoffs on maintenance and usability.
Practicality is often complex and leans towards easier maintenance and established knowledge.