6 ms·

Wasn't there some effort to design sail, or sail-augmented supertanker/freighter/container ships? I vaguely remember seeing renderings w/ hi tech airfoils moun

• jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
  There's been a few different efforts along those lines. Free standing wing sails are surprisingly practical. They can be designed to be self trimming: that is you set a control surface once and then it tracks the wind so long as the ship doesn't make a 180. But as cool as that technology is, it simply isn't economic vs burning the cheapest oil available. Because international waters are a no man's land pollution wise, most freighters burn extremely dirty but cheap oil, ie bunker oil. This stuff is so thick it often needs heaters to liquify it to get it into the engine. So long as that externality is unpriced, sail augmentation simply won't be interesting to ship owners financially.
  • nradov 4y ago
    Just because a fuel is thick doesn't necessarily mean it is dirty. The IMO has required ships in international waters to use low-sulphur fuel or exhaust scrubbers since 2020. Some smaller ships occasionally break the law but the large shipping companies are fairly good about compliance now. CO2 emissions remain an issue, but large diesel engine merchant ships are still the most energy efficient mode of transportation ever invented. There are a few large wind-assisted cargo ships in commercial service today. This trend will probably continue as sail technology gets cheaper and fuel gets more expensive. But it only improves efficiency by something like 5-10%. https://splash247.com/mols-wind-assisted-bulk-carrier-enters-service/ https://splash247.com/mols-wind-assisted-bulk-carrier-enters...