The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a U.N. agency in charge of shipping, agreed to cut total greenhouse gas emissions from shipping by at least 50 percent by 2050. The race is on to find technologies that can de-carbonize the 50,000-plus tankers, freighters, container vessels and ferries that make up the world’s shipping fleet. Wind power is one option being discussed.

The 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change Left control of the shipping industry’s emission to the IMO. The new agreement is its response.

There is plenty more work to do at the London-based IMO, which promised a detailed strategy on how to implement the promise by 2023. A report published just before the meeting by the International Transport Forum (ITF), a think tank run by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found that the industry could achieve up to 95 percent decarbonization as early as 2035.

Low-tech solutions

After the 2008 financial crisis resulted in a drop in world trade and too many ships, Maersk, the world’s largest container-shipping line, discovered it could cut fuel use 30 percent simply by steaming more slowly. Because of the wide availability of cheap (and often dirty) fuel, shipping has traditionally been wasteful of fuel. More quickly can be done by retrofitting existing ships with technology to cut their fuel use and hence emissions, according to the ITF. Here are just four:

•  Fitting ships’ bows with a bulbous extension below the water line reduces drag enough to cut emissions 2 to 7 percent.
•  A technique known as air lubrication, which pumps compressed air below the hull to create a carpet of bubbles, also reduces drag and can cut emissions by a further 3 percent.
• Replacing one propeller with two rotating in opposite directions recovers slipstream energy and can make efficiency gains of 8 to 15 percent.
• Even cleaning the hull and painting it with a low-friction coating can deliver gains of up to 5 percent.

Entirely new ships

Going one better, the Japanese shipping line NYK boasts that its design for a 1,100-foot-long container ship, the Super Eco Ship 2030, would use LNG to make hydrogen to run fuel cells. Backed up by solar panels covering the entire ship and 40000 square feet of sails to catch the wind, the combination could cut emissions by 70 percent

Source:Green Biz

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Picture credit to:Keghan Crossland