Air Pollution Caused By Shipping.

[Lewis McColl]

An interesting article in one of our papers here last year.
It concluded that the majority, about 95% of the global scientist who signed up to the climate change policy ae employed by government agencies.

I fail to see how diesel, now Sulphur free, and some of the cleanest fuel can be doing so much harm.

Most modern ships now are all electric, the power being generated from a diesel generator.
I have seen the fuel being loaded and it looks no different to normal diesel.

Smoke from such power sources is often just unburned fuel brought about by dirty air filters or inductors that require cleaning.

No offence John but you can tell your were not an engineer at sea.

[happy daze john in oz]

No offence John but you can tell your were not an engineer at sea.

No offence taken Lewis, but I am talking of the situation today, not long ago when yes ships may have been a lot dirtier then.
As I have told you previously I am willing to listen to those with the experience. But you must allow for the fact that there are some of us who do attempt to find out for ourselves.

The filters I speak of are those on the big trucks we have here in Oz often seen belching black smoke.

As to the fuel taken on ships now. I was watching the loading of such here in port Melbourne and got to speak with the crew on loading barge.
He told me the Diesel there would work just as well in my Land Rover, such is the quality of the fuel now.

[Lewis McColl]

The big difference John is you have Marine Diesel fuel, which can be quite waxy, then you have Marine Gas Oil
Nearly all ships these days will run on HFO 380 which needs to be heated to + 150 deg C, Marine Diesel oil is a blend of HFO& Gas Oil, Gas Oil is more or less the same the same stuff as you would put in your car.
It is a few years since I was down the engine room but even todays Generators will are running on HFO 380. It used to be you would Start & Stop one of these Generators on Diesel, but you do not even have to do that today. Only time you would do that is if you were going to be doing maintenance on the fuel system or a major routine schedule.
There are several reasons you will see darkish smoke coming from the exhaust up takes in port is that there is insufficient load on the engine. A diesel engine is only efficient when it is running at nearly 100% load, the turbo charger needs to be screaming it's head off. Another reason which is as John says could be because of incomplete combustion(Low Load) or a poorly maintained engine , poor fuel injection due to the injector nozzle dripping fuel into the combustion chamber after the firing stroke.
The cleanest fuel out there Hydrogen, when it is burnt as a fuel the only thing left is water. A lot of car makers are trying to produce hydrogen powered cars. When I was on the British Merchant were trialed a Hydrogen fuel cell, It was about the size of a fridge freezer and it was used to power a domestic fridge freezer. But the technology is there. All it needs is the will to develop it further. But we all know that BIG OIL MAJORS are not going to let that happen until such times as they can make more money out of it than they do out of fossile fuels.

[Keith Tindell]

Thats interesting Lewis re hydrogen fuelled cars. apparently there are 3 manufacturers of hydrogen cars now, Honda, hyundai, and toyota. They were started in 2014, mainly in the states i believe. Wonder they are not more widely used. only takes a few minutes to top the tanks. Electric cars are not so easily charged, takes hours anyway, and people living in flats cannot charge at home, unless we have thousands of charging stations all over the country, i can only see hybrids catching on, and i know we already have those, kt

[vic mcclymont]

The Spanish Navy has a fuel cell driven sub.
Vic

[vic mcclymont]

Wightlink’s new flagship Victoria of Wight is on track to be the Solent’s ‘greenest’ ferry when she joins the company’s fleet on the Portsmouth-Fishbourne route in 2018.



. I think this is a bit of a first for Wartsila

Installed on MV Glen Sannox, built by Ferguson Marine, port Glasgow. Enters service in the summer.
Vic

[robpage]

When shipowners are involved I wonder if it's the ecology and Climate Change or saving money that takes the priority when it comes to bringing in novel ways

[Lewis McColl]

Age old argument Sail or steam , paddle wheel or screw, Coal or Oil ?

[happy daze john in oz]

Lewis, thank you for the information, it makes for interesting reading.
But you are correct about heat in diesel engines and their efficiency.
I never use my Land Rover on journeys of less that about 30 klm.
It takes about 20klm to reach best heat situation even though the water temp gauge will say correct after about 6 klm.
But once at maximum heat it will run sweet as a nut for ever and give excellent fuel economy.
On runs less than 30 klm it will use about 12 to 13 litre per 100 klm.
Get it hot and that drops to around 8.5 which with a 2.5 litre engine and about 2 ton road side weight is not bad.

[John Arton]

This is a interesting satellite view of the Eastern from a NASA satellite, showing trails of pollution left by vessels exhausts.
https://gcaptain.us11.list-manage.co...b&e=3b737aa316
rgds
J.A.