- Use Cleaner Fuel Sources Instead
- Adopt Wind Power
- 3. Switch to "Green Hydrogen"
- Use Battery Storage
- Slow Down Traveling
- 6. Use More Efficient Engines
- Use LNG Instead
- Conclusion
Whether it was a new pair of jeans or a car, did you realize there is a 90% chance that the most recent item you purchased was shipped by a cargo ship?
While shipping is the least expensive and carbon-intensive form of international transportation, it nonetheless leaves a sizable and expanding environmental legacy.
According to the most recent government estimates, shipping is responsible for 2% to 3% of worldwide CO2 emissions, which is expected to increase by 4% a year.
In addition to releasing harmful pollutants, including nitrous oxide (NOx) and sulfur oxide (SOx), cargo ships also produce CO2, contributing to global warming. These pollutants have an impact on air quality.
The shipping sector is going through a "green revolution" and reevaluating how it can transport thousands of tons of cargo across oceans without increasing global emissions due to mounting demand from governments, regulatory organizations, and consumers.
The answers lie in implementing various new measures, ranging from the extremely complex to the highly basic. This is true of many climate change remedies as well.
The following are 7 ways the shipping sector can work towards reducing carbon emissions and, thereby, its carbon footprint:
1. Use Cleaner Fuel Sources Instead
Utilizing fuels with lower emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants is perhaps the most straightforward approach to cut shipping emissions, at least in the near term.
Cargo ships need significant quantities of energy, which they obtain from enormous fuel stores, to transport so much weight over such vast distances.
Using a medium-sized container ship as an example, it can carry more than 2 million gallons of gasoline and burn 63,000 gallons per day while at sea.
Prior, practically all cargo ships ran on cheap, low-grade "heavy fuel oil," sometimes referred to as "bunker fuel," which has a far greater sulfur content than diesel. So cargo ships are not only incredibly fuel-hungry but also far worse for the environment.
The maximum permitted sulfur content for bunker fuel was reduced from 3.5 percent to merely 0.5 percent by the International Maritime Organization at the beginning of 2020. With this change, sulfur emissions should be reduced by 77 percent, or 8.5 million tonnes annually.
Additionally, there is a growing biofuel market that can dramatically lower the CO2 emissions produced by shipping industry boats without needing costly engine upgrades.
For instance, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has been experimenting with biofuel mixtures. After successfully testing a 10 percent mix, the company increased the quantity to 30 percent.
Even though the development of these fuels frequently puts food production in direct competition with them, biomass-derived fuels prove to be a promising alternative.
Businesses can also turn used cooking oil into biofuel, reducing CO2 and sulfur emissions by up to 90%.
2. Adopt Wind Power
Sometimes, despite our innovative engineering and technical developments, mother nature offers the most practical answers.
And just as the first sailing ships to ever sail the seas, modern international shipping corporations are looking to wind power for a less expensive and more environmentally friendly means to transport commodities across oceans.
The Oceanbird, a cargo ship with enormous, 80-meter sails that can carry 7,000 automobiles across the Atlantic, was created by a Swedish collaboration that included Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology.
The ship's designers assert that harnessing wind power could reduce CO2 emissions from ships by up to 90%, even though the ship still has modest engines to help it enter and exit harbors.
The Oceanbird's biggest flaw is its slower travel pace; it will take about twelve days to complete a route that typically takes seven; it is scheduled for debut in 2024.
Nevertheless, the ship's designers, including Jakob Kuttenkeuler from Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology, think its environmental advantages will far surpass any drawbacks.
3. Switch to "Green Hydrogen."
The advent of hydrogen, more specifically green hydrogen, as a means of powering large machinery like trucks, planes, and ships has been one of the most exciting breakthroughs in recent years.
Green hydrogen is a technology that can eliminate emissions from shipping by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy sources like the sun and wind.
Ships can't carry as much cargo, though, because green hydrogen currently takes up 2-4 times as much room as bunker fuel.
Additionally, switching to hydrogen necessitates shipping companies to swap out their current engines for electric motors and hydrogen fuel cells. It is technically feasible but would need a substantial financial investment.
Despite these obstacles, green hydrogen appears to have a significant impact on lowering the CO2 emissions of the maritime sector, if not taking the lead as the primary fuel.
While green hydrogen is also significantly more expensive than conventional bunker fuel — by up to 800 percent — the price is expected to drop sharply during the following ten years:
- Using the world's biggest solar and wind farm, a new Australian enterprise aims to produce and export green hydrogen to Asia.
- To power 20,000 buses, a Saudi Arabian project hopes to produce 650 tons of renewable hydrogen daily.
- A new facility in California hopes to produce green hydrogen from plastic and recycled paper for less money than it would cost to use renewable energy.
Thus, even if it appears that green hydrogen may still be a few years away from widespread use, it has nearly unlimited potential to cut shipping's carbon emissions.
Green hydrogen appears to be on the verge of becoming one of the most prevalent fuel sources globally, given its lack of greenhouse gases and energy density sufficient to propel even the largest cargo ships.
4. Use Battery Storage
Although brands like Tesla may have made electric cars more popular, the shipping sector also has a lot to gain from the ripple effects of developing battery technology.
The Danish shipping company Maersk is testing a 600-kilowatt-hour battery that is the size of a shipping container to reduce the energy needs and emissions of one of its main cargo ships.
A different European company, Yara Fertilizer of Norway, is constructing the first all-electric cargo ship in history to deliver its supplies across the nation and do away with the 40,000 trips that diesel trucks would typically make.
Even though it is small by today's standards, Yara's electric model can go 30 nautical miles while carrying 3,200 tons of cargo.
Modern lithium batteries' main drawbacks are their size and weight; they are typically too big and heavy to power huge container ships while still leaving room for the necessary cargo.
But initially, batteries will likely power small ships over short distances and continue to gain popularity as they get smaller, lighter, and more affordable.
In light of this, it seems that energy storage - especially when combined with renewables - will still play a vital role in reducing global shipping emissions, even though it may not be viable for batteries to power entire cargo ships without technological development.
5. Slow Down Traveling
One of the most efficient and straightforward options among the several technical developments to cut shipping emissions is to slow down vehicles.
To save fuel and lower shipping CO2 emissions, this technique, formally referred to as "slow steaming," involves turning down engines.
Commercial maritime companies adopted slow steaming for the first time when the global financial crisis led to oversupply and interrupted international trade in 2007.
Furthermore, several nations—including important EU members—now advocate making slow steaming a cornerstone of carbon-reduction plans.
Because the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions outweigh the difference in ship speed, slow steaming is primarily successful.
Or, to put it another way, lowering a ship's speed by merely 10% can drastically lower its carbon emissions by 27%.
Slow steaming has the downside that, as the name implies, it takes longer to move things from one place to another.
If this approach is extensively used in the shipping business, it will take longer for our goods to arrive, or more ships will be required to satisfy today's tight deadlines.
However, slow steaming offers a straightforward and practical answer, not to mention one that can save millions of dollars, in light of the maritime industry's commitment to cutting its emissions by half by 2050.
6. Use More Efficient Engines.
Utilizing more efficient engines is another way to lower shipping emissions.
Between 2010 and 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency overseeing shipping, wants to cut the amount of sulfur dioxide released per ton of burned oil in half.
In order to do this, the IMO has created two sets of regulations: one for brand-new vessels and one for older ships.
The tighter regulations, which include utilizing catalytic converters to decrease hazardous emissions, must be met by new ships built in 2012. The less restrictive regulations must be complied with by existing ships by 2015.
The problem with these limitations is their expense.
The World Bank estimates installing catalytic converters on current ships might cost $1 billion. This implies that many shippers will choose not to comply with the new rules at all, raising emissions.
There are additional methods to improve engine efficiency, which is good news. For instance, in order to provide cleaner-burning diesel, engine makers are attempting to create low-sulfur fuels.
In addition, some researchers think that conventional engines may someday be wholly replaced by hydrogen fuel cells.
7. Use LNG Instead
Switching to liquefied natural gas is another method for decreasing shipping emissions, particularly those brought on by burning fossil fuels (LNG).
To use this technique, methane must first be transformed from liquid natural gas. Because methane takes up just roughly 1/8th of the space needed to store LNG, it is far simpler to transport than LNG.
LNG can be transported at temperatures ranging from -162°F (-84°C) to +260°F (127°C) because it is so energy dense.
LNG can be transported long distances without losing its heat since it is kept at subzero temperatures during storage.
Regrettably, LNG is also exceedingly expensive. Cooling liquid natural gas to -162°F (-83°C) will cause it to become a gas state.
Then, you must compress it to 3,000 psi or so (20,921 kPa). The final step is to chill it once more to -162°F, or -84°C. The total of these actions results in significant energy usage.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the conversion process uses about 40% of the total energy used for LNG transportation.
Therefore, switching to LNG can increase carbon emissions. But this is still one of the best courses of action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the carbon intensity of freight shipping has increased over time. This indicates that transportation corporations' fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions have increased more than ever.
However, there are solutions for shippers to lower their emissions without sacrificing effectiveness or safety to make a beneficial environmental impact and maybe eventually be completely carbon neutral.
At A-1 Auto Transport, we offer comprehensive shipping services to meet the needs of your business. As one of the premier shipping companies in North America, we have years of experience shipping both domestically and internationally.
Contact us today to inquire about our heavy equipment shipping services. We look forward to hearing from you.