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I posed this question on the boards at the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, I am wondering what people think about the idea and if it is workable so i would be interested in your thoughts.
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With the current global emissions hitting new heights I had a thought the other night while talking to a good friend of mine about submarines.
It was about how the shipping industry could potentially reduce emissions, and I would like to see what others think about it and if it would be practical in the long term.
Back when I worked on ships (2003-2006) we used to use LSFO fuel oil (Low Sulphur Fuel Oil), the stuff was horrible to handle it was sticky and it stank.
But with the advances in technology the fuel oils used today in ships are much cleaner yet they still produce pollutants.
Some companies have put re burners or scrubbers onto the ships in order to reduce emissions levels but I do think we can go a little bit further.
I spent some time on a VLCC during 2005 that ship used part of its own cargo as fuel, while this was efficient in some respects it was incredibly unclean, however; one of the officers I was with had recently been on a LNG carrier and he informed me that some LNG carriers use the boil off to power the ship.
Not only is that one a smart move but it is relatively clean.
Fast forward to 2014-2017 I spent some intermittent time with the German Navy and visited all 6 of their type 212 submarines, I even went to sea on two of them.
These submarines use an AIP fuel cell system to power the submarine and its hotel load (weapons systems, living systems and sensors).
The boats use hydrogen, Nitrogen and oxygen to create power using a synthetic membrane and electrolysis to cause a reaction which in turn produces power the exhaust product is water.
Now the type 212 is a small submarine yet it carries enough supply to officially last up to 3 weeks of varying use (sorry cant be more specific).
The fuel cell allows this boat to remain submerged for the entire length of the deployment, it does create air and water for the crew, it powers highly sensitive and power demanding systems used onboard.
Cargo ships such as container ships for example do not require the huge hotel loads a submarine does, and it certainly doesn’t need to produce oxygen with reverse osmosis plants and CO2 scrubbers.
Thus if this system was put into a ULCV (Ultra Large Container Vessel) do you think it would be a practical proposition ?
I would be very interested to know the thoughts regarding this subject.
More over in November 2020 DFDS announced plans to construct a fuel cell ferry to work the Oslo to Copenhagen route by 2027
Official communique
https://www.dfds.com/en/about/media/...slo-copenhagen
Ferries by nature like cruise ships have a high hotel load due to the carrying of passengers, but cargo ships don’t so would this work?