Far More Of Shipping Can Electrify Than Most Assume
All inland and most short sea shipping will run on batteries, often containerized and charged in ports
The shipping industry has a predisposition to assuming that molecules are required for energy. Some of that is simply that the history of shipping for the past two hundreds years has required them. But much of it is also due to the industry moving molecules for revenue. It’s hard for them to conceptualize or accept a world with a lot fewer molecules being moved around, including the ones carrying energy like maritime bunker fuel.
But it’s starting to sink in that the replacement molecules for energy stories that they have been being told by the ammonia and methanol industries have been lacking a vital bit of reality. When you make ammonia and methanol from anything except fossil fuels with no emissions control, they are much more expensive. How much? At the container shipping industry’s top event this year Jeremy Nixon, the CEO of Japanese liner Ocean Network Express, told attendees to expect double or triple the fuel costs per container. Based on work I’ve done multiple ways over the past several years, I believe that’s likely optimistic.
If only there were alternatives that could be suitable for a great deal of shipping. And there are…
