Sponsored by Air Health Skye. Shipping currently accounts for almost 3%
of global carbon emissions. In order to hit global net-zero targets by 2050 solutions
like biofuels, green and blue hydrogen, as well as ammonia have been held up as alternatives
to fossil fuels to be used in ships. But what if we could go back to the early stages of
shipping, where the wind was used for sailing, but using current and upcoming technology?
Could wind blow past biofuels and hydrogen as the best pathway to decarbonize shipping? I'm Matt Ferrell. Welcome to Undecided Several industries around the globe have been
developing, improving, and changing to green technologies with the aim to neutralize carbon
emissions in the next few decades. One of the more challenging ones is the shipping
industry, which accounts for about 2.5% of total carbon emissions in the world, releasing
940 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year. That shouldn't be a shock given
how dependent shipping is on heavy fuel oil (HFO) and combined with the fact that container
ships carry more than 80% of world trade today. The current pandemic-related container ship
backups in ports around the world isn't helping. Currently, there are about 5,000 container
ships sailing on our seas every single day and about 90% of these are powered by heavy
fuel oil. A large ship can release more than 5,000 tons of sulfur oxide (SOx) pollution
each year, which is dangerous for the environment and people. But before diving into how wind may help to
decarbonize the shipping industry, how did we reach this point? The history of shipping and boats dates back
to 4,000 B.C. in Egypt. The Nile river was vital for the survival of Egyptian communities
and was largely used for transportation. In the 15th century, Spain and Portugal started
to build carracks, which were large sailing ships used for their expeditions. In fact,
it was a carrack that first sailed around the world, from 1519 to 1522. Ship improvements extended through the 19th
century, when a bulkier but also faster ship design came up, the clippers. Tea clippers,
which were used to carry ... you probably guessed it ... fresh tea and could reach a
top speed of 20 knots (about 23 mph) in favorable wind conditions. Fun side note, that's faster
than today's cargo ships. The Industrial Revolution brought improvements
to many sectors, including shipping. Steamships became popular, but they weren't a good option
for cargo transport because the fuel (coal) and the engine took too much space. In the
1950s, oil started to be used, which reduced the size of the fuel tanks and opened up more
space for cargo. Since then, the use of this cheap but dirty fuel is where the environmental
issues related to shipping began to increase, and it hasn't been easy to it clean up. If we zoom out to today, we start see some
alternatives to heavy fuel oil that have popped up to make ships greener. Things like hydrogen,
ammonia, and biofuels ... but is that the solution? What about taking a page from the
past with good, old wind -- remember, clipper ships were actually faster than today's cargo
ships -- mixed with all the technology and know-how available today? When it comes to wind power, we usually think
of 3-bladed turbines dotting the horizon or giant sails on ships. But today there are
several other methods, as I explored in my solid state wind energy video and for shipping
it's no different. The first wind propulsion technology that's
been considered for ships is Rotor Sails. They're also known as Flettner rotors, which
are vertical rotating cylinders invented by the Finnish Engineer Sigurd Savonius at the
beginning of the 20th century. But they were named after Anton Flettner, a German aviation
engineer, who sailed a rotor ship prototype in 1926. Rotor sails harness wind power through the
Magnus effect. According to this fluid dynamics principle, when the wind pushes the rotating
cylindrical rotor perpendicularly, it generates a force in a right angle (90º) to the flow
stream. When the wind is flowing laterally across the ship's deck, perpendicular to the
direction the ship is moving, the rotation speeds up one side of the cylinder while slowing
down the other one. This creates lift, or thrust, in the same direction the ship is
traveling, propelling it forwards. The Magnus effect explains why soccer players
can bend a soccer ball's path as well. When the player kicks the ball off-center, the
ball spins. During the flight, as the ball spins, friction between the ball and air causes
the air to react to the direction of spin. For example, if the player kicks the ball
right of center, it spins counter-clockwise and the Magnus force acts left, so the ball
curves to the left. Small motors located in the ship's hull power
the rotor sails, and as they rotate, horizontal thrust is generated to push the ship forward.
If the wind changes direction and hits the rotors in the opposite direction to their
rotation, the ship reverses. But to avoid issues and make sure things are running smoothly,
there's a real-time control and monitoring system that is constantly measuring the conditions
and adjusting the rotors. A system like this isn't meant to completely
replace the need for fuel, but to augment it. The vessels still have engines and standard
propulsion ... kind of like hybrid cars. The big gain here is reduced fuel use, which can
work for anything from passenger ships to bulk carriers. The system isn't without some
downsides though. Wind can blow from all directions and even highly tuned systems may not provide
constant power and thrust, which would affect the fuel efficiency gains. Large and high
rotor sails need to be used to move a large ship, so the use of this greener technology
reduces space that could be used for cargo. There's another wind power technology that's
been catching the eye of freight shipping companies, but before I get to that I'd like
to thank Air Health for sponsoring today's video. The drive to decarbonize shipping to
help clean up pollutants in the air ties back to indoor air quality too, but it isn't something
most people think of. When you consider that American's spend about 90% of our time indoors,
and pollutants are usually 2-5 times higher indoors than outdoors, it's a little disturbing.
I'm a life-long allergy sufferer with pets and I also have asthma, so I've used countless
HEPA filters over the years. Air Health's Skye Portable Air Purifier has really impressed
me. This thing is whisper quiet at just over 32 dB. But what sets Skye apart is the combination
of HEPA filtration with their patented PRO-Cell technology for chemical reduction, and UV
light to help neutralize bacteria, viruses, mold, and fungi. It's not just filtering the
air, but actually cleaning and purifying it. It can move 420 cubic feet of air per minute,
which covers over 1200 square feet worth of your home. But the icing on the cake is that
it's also smart ... it's onboard air quality sensors automatically adjust the fan speed
based on how dirty the air is. And the Air Health app makes it easy to adjust from anywhere,
as well as tracking your homes air quality. If you'd like to get Air Health's Skye for
your home, check out the link in the description. Thanks to Air Health and to all of you for
supporting the channel. So, another wind power technology that's been
catching the eyes of freight shipping companies is wingsails, which is based on the same aerodynamic
principles as airplane wings. Compared to traditional sails, wingsails have an airfoil
shape, which provides more lift and a better lift-to-drag ratio. In an airplane, for example, lift and drag
are crucial for an airplane’s takeoff, cruising, and landing. The asymmetrical wing shape causes
a difference in air velocity around it, forcing air to move faster across the top of the wing
and making it lift up. Bringing this concept to a ship, wingsails
can improve the aerodynamic performance in a similar way, reducing drag and creating
more forward thrust to move the vessel. To do that there are three things to keep
in mind: 1) drag is the force that's contrary to the movement direction, 2) lift is the
force that acts at a right angle to the direction of drag, and 3) thrust is the force needed
to overcome the drag and to generate the lift force. Similar to rotor sails, several factors like
wind speed, ship speed and ship type have to be taken into consideration with wingsail
technology, and a lot of planning and wind analysis needs to be performed so that everything
can come together and work well. No power is needed to produce lift, making
this technology very efficient when sailing upwind. A pro of this tech is that the wingsails
can be operated at a small angle towards the apparent wind, which is the wind you 'feel'
on you as you sail, so that these sails can harness the wind basically all the time. However,
similar to rotor sails, these airfoils take space that could be used for cargo. On the
other hand, while Flettner rotors have to be laid down when the ship passes under a
bridge, taking a lot of space, some airfoil technologies can be retracted. There are several companies trying to bring
these technologies to market, like the London-based company Anemoi, which is based on rotor sails
technology. They build the rotor item 11 of the figure below using lightweight composite
materials and the tower item 8 of the figure below made of steel. By using these components
their system is typically less than 0.1% of the ship's deadweight. Anemoi's rotors can
be moved or folded on the deck so that they don't impact cargo operations. Regarding fuel savings, for Capesize bulk
carriers that can carry 180,000 dwt (deadweight tonage), Anemoi estimates that when sailing
a route from San Francisco to Shanghai and back, a 21.9% fuel and emission reduction
can be achieved. More specifically 1,413 tons of fuel could be saved for this one ship every
year. One project the company delivered in 2018
involved a 64,000 dwt Geared Ultramax Bulk Carrier, in which four rotor sails (2m x 16m)
were installed. Something interesting to highlight is that the equipment installation took less
than 2 hours per unit. Until last year, the ship sailed for 518 days, 174,000 NM, and
visited 50 ports. All in, the savings estimate with fuel and carbon emission is 12.5% --- 73
tons of fuel. How does that work out for cost savings? Well,
another company that's also building out Flettner rotors is Norsepower. A study published in the Environmental Science
and Pollution Research journal developed a case study for a carrier transporting coal,
iron, ore, and grain sailing in a route from Egypt to France with four Flettner rotors
from Norsepower, which is about $750,000 per rotor. . By the end of the project’s lifetime,
the annual fuel savings could reach $1.3 million. The payback period ranged from 6 to 8 years
depending on fuel prices, and the LCOE after 8 years was $0.05/kWh. Jumping over to wingsails, this technology
is still at the early design stages, but the company Oceanbird is trying to bring it to
market. The 80-meter-high wingsails are supposed to lower carbon emissions by 90% -- which
is hard to believe. For now, they've built a 7-meter scale ship to pull information together
and improve its functionality. The company aims to deliver their first vessel in 2024,
so it's still a long way from fruition. But BAR technologies, from the UK, is also
developing wingsails for shipping. They've signed a contract with the agribusiness giant
Cargill and are aiming to have the first vessels on the water by 2022. While hybrid wind power
systems look promising, they're still in the pilot stages, which means we can't rely on
them as our only path forward. Another area that's getting a lot funding
and attention are alternate fuels like ammonia and biofuels. Methanol has been considered,
but it's only green if it's made from either biomass gasification or renewable electricity
and captured carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, most methanol produced today is derived from
fossil fuels. The same can be said of Ammonia, which is currently made from natural gas.
But green ammonia can be produced using hydrogen from water electrolysis and nitrogen separated
from the air, all using renewable energy. There is a potential path for cleaner fuel
production there. The shipping industry giant Maersk, for example,
invested $1.4 billion on ships that can run on ‘carbon neutral’ methanol. The ships
will be able to transport 16,000 containers. For that project, Denmark’s European Energy
and its subsidiary, REintegrate, would produce 10,000 metric tons of green e-methanol per
year to be used in the ships. And according to Maersk’s head of decarbonization, the
ships would start operating in early 2024. Ammonia, which is still a recent alternative,
is also at the early design stages. South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, for example,
has approval in principle (AiP) for a 227m long vessel running on ammonia that will be
used to carry ammonia. Wärtsilä is another company betting on hydrogen and ammonia as
a fuel for shipping. The company expects to have an engine and plant concept for pure
hydrogen operation ready by 2025 and an engine running on an ammonia blend this year. Even though we can see progress in green technologies
for shipping, its low-carbon future is still growing at a slow pace. Wind power technologies
are at the early stages, mainly wingsails, so more testing and design improvements are
crucial to verify the viability of this tech in the long term, although the results are
promising for rotor sails. Similarly, ammonia fuel cells and green methanol engines are
still in the development stage for ships, with tests expected to run in the next few
years. We've got a long way to go, but there is movement happening. But what do you think? Do you think looking
at wind technologies like these is the way to go? Any other technologies worth looking
into? Jump into the comments and let me know. If you liked the animations illustrating the
Magnus effect in my video, I strongly recommend checking out the animator, Serge Sorokin,
at sergefx.com. He's so good at conveying complex ideas around scientific principles
or products just like this. He's great to work with. And thanks as always to all of
my patrons and a big welcome to new Producer, Bill Nussey. Your direct support really helps
with producing these videos. Speaking of which, if you liked this video be sure to check out
one of the ones I have linked right here. And subscribe and hit the notification bell
if you think I’ve earned it. Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next
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