While diesel cars increasingly look to be on the way out, another big polluter is often ignored: shipping. Will electric vessels, including the first e-barges, help the industry clean up its act?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Murat
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The world's first 100-percent electric barges are set to start chugging between the busy ports of Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam in Belgium and the Netherlands by the end of the year, cutting down the numbers of diesel-powered trucks transporting goods.
Nicknamed the "Tesla ships," the emissions-free boats are the latest offerings in a fleet of new electric and hybrid vessels in Europe. Port Liner, the Dutch Company behind the barges, claims they could revolutionize the polluting shipping and freight industry.
"It simply doesn't make sense for us to build new ships with diesel engines," Ton van Meegen, chief executive of Port Liner, a €100 million ($124 million) EU-supported venture, told DW. "Our vessels will be used for decades, and electric motors are clearly where the industry is headed."
The Port Liner e-barges run on batteries charged with green energyImage: Omega Design Druten
Construction of five barges, which can carry up 24 containers each, starts in March 2018. Powered by batteries charged with carbon-free energy, the vessels are expected to be on the water by the end of this year.
Although they'll initially be manned by a crew, they are designed to be autonomous in the long term, and will take 23,000 freight trucks off the roads, the company says.
Cleaning up the shipping sector
Ships, especially those out in international waters, commonly burn bunker fuel — the dirtiest form of fuel. The emissions billowing out of their smoke stacks include high levels of nitrogen and sulphur oxides (NOx and SOx), which are linked to asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.
Maritime transport is responsible for about 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the European Commission. While other sectors are anticipated to be able to reduce their emissions, in shipping, they are expected to increase sharply.
Port Liner says its e-barges will take more than 20,000 freight trucks — many of them diesel — off the roadImage: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Woitas
Until recently, shipping has been largely absent from discussions on how to slash air pollution and carbon dioxide, or CO2.
Now, policy-makers are slowly taking action.
The International Maritime Organization, the United Nations agency regulating the shipping industry, has established a rule to limit the amount of sulphur in shipping fuels to .5 percent, down from 3.5 percent, starting in 2020.
Research published in February 2018 in the journal Nature estimated this will reduce deaths related to shipping pollution by around a third, and ship-related childhood asthma cases by more than half. The latter currently stands at around 14 million cases annually.
It's a move the world's main shipping organization, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), says it supports. ICS secretary general Peter Hinchliffe told DW that it also supports CO2 emissions reductions in the sector in line with the Paris Agreement.
Electric batteries: A viable option for global shipping?
Stricter regulations, coupled with production of lighter and more powerful batteries, has sparked what Lucy Gilliam — an expert on aviation and shipping at Brussels-based nongovernmental organization Transport and Environment — dubbed an "energy revolution."
"Around Europe there is a wave of recent developments changing the (shipping) sector at a fast pace," she said. "We need to bust the myth that batteries are too heavy or don't have enough capacity to go far. In recent years, this has changed significantly."
Competition between ports for business means they are reticent when it comes to implementing green technologiesImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Belga/D. Waem
On short journeys, batteries don't tend to add additional weight compared to traditional fossil fuel-powered ships, Gilliam said.
For example, to decarbonize the ferry between Dover and Calais, the battery would make up around 1 percent of the weight of the ship. "And that is nothing in the context of the amount of trucks and containers a ferry can take," added Gilliam.
While improved battery technology has helped the new generation of electric European ventures get afloat, long-haul, ocean-going vessels currently do not have the option of docking regularly to plug in small batteries — meaning that they are unlikely to become completely electrified in the near future.
"With current limitations on technology, it seems that electrification will be limited to small craft undertaking short, ferry-type voyages," said Hinchliffe, adding that pressure on the shipping sector to reduce to zero emissions should be used as way to encourage research and development into clean propulsion.
New measures
Groups such as Transport and Environment say more should be done to spur on electric-powered vessels. One obstacle is taxes, which are currently widely levied on electricity, but not on more-polluting marine fuels.
Vessels traversing long distances over the oceans don't have the opportunity to recharge batteries, so e-ships may be confined to shorter routes for nowImage: Getty Images/AFP/G. Kirk
Meanwhile, the globalized nature of the shipping industry means that ports are in competition with one another. That makes them reluctant to press ahead with green port schemes — such as taxing ships which run on dirtier fuels — or imposing stricter rules on the emissions of docked ships.
But electric vessels are nonetheless making waves, particularly in Scandinavian countries. A medium-sized car ferry, the MS Ampere, took to the seas off western Norway in early 2015. Ferry operator Scandlines also runs battery-diesel hybrids between Germany and Denmark.
According to Gilliam, electrification of short distance routes in Europe is inevitable. But in the longer term, the group is even more optimistic that fossil fuels will become a thing of the past across the economy.
"We think that everything will be electrified," said Gilliam (adding that aviation is a likely exception).
"Then, it will just be a question of where that energy comes from."
The biggest container ships in the world
Ship owners from all over the world are competing for the glory of building the most outstanding vessels plowing the oceans. In this race not only size matters, but technology, too.
Image: Reuters/F. Bimmer
A new world record
The largest container ship in the world entered the German port of Wilhelmshaven on Sunday July 2. The MV "OOCL Hong Kong" is 400 meters long and has 21,413 pitches for standard containers. It was built in the Samsung ship yard in South Korea. Before the stop in Germany, the ship, on its maiden voyage, has already stopped in Felixstowe, England and the Polish city of Gdansk.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/I. Wagner
The size of the Empire State Building
The world's second largest container ship has made its way up the Elbe River to become the biggest-ever vessel to call at Hamburg harbor. With a length of 400 meters (1,320 ft) it would normally carry 20,170 containers - but that number had to be reduced because the river is not deep enough. Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K wants to employ it regularly on routes between Europe and East Asia.
Never-ending race?
MOL Triumph, alongside the world's largest container ship, Madrid Maersk, will soon be replaced by OOCL Hong Kong in terms of capacity because the new cargo giant can load 21.100 standard containers. A quarter century ago, the biggest cargo ships could load only slightly more than 4,000 containers, and were easily outstripped by supertankers which remain the biggest vessels ever built.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Warmuth
Too large to fit
With a length of 458 meters, Norwegian oil tanker Jahre Viking was the largest ship ever built. She needed more than six kilometers (3.72 miles) to stop, and was unable to navigate the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the English Channel. Between 2004 and 2009, she was used as a floating storage for oil before being sold to Indian ship breakers and breached for scrapping in Gujarat.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/DPA Report
Small city on the water
The biggest cruise ship is the Harmony of the Seas, at a length of 362 meters. More than 6,300 passengers can enjoy their time on 16 decks, while being served by a crew of 2.100. Royal Caribbean Cruises paid more than one billion euros (($1.08 billion) for her, equipping it with 20 dining rooms, 23 swimming pools - including the longest water slide - and an open air garden with 12,000 plants.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Dubray
The 'toys' of the super-rich
Rivalry among ship owners seems fiercest in the super-yacht category, where Arab sheiks, Russian oligarchs and US billionaires dig deep - not shy to splash out on costly extensions even during construction to outbid others in the race for luxury. Momentarily, the "toy" of a Saudi sheikh holds the title. His 180-meter yacht named Azzam is equipped with helideck, missile defense and submarine.
Image: Imago/TheYachtPhoto.com
'Sailing boat' for the romatic
The world's biggest yacht under sails is called "Sailing Yacht A" and the creation of designer Philippe Starck. She is owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnitchenko. The total sail area of 3,747 square metres is equal to the size of half a football pitch, She has eight decks with three swimming pools and an underwater observation pod in the keel.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Heimken
The most expensive is for combat
The Gerald R. Ford is the lead ship of a new class of United States Navy supercarriers and was commissioned in April 2017.The US military has spent about $13 billion for the aircarft carrier which belongs to a fleet of currently 18 classical carriers. She is able to launch Navy jet fighters faster and more efficiently due to an electromagnetic catapult instead of a steam-driven one.
Image: Imago/Zumapress/C. Delano
Russian trailblazer
Three-meters-thick Arctic ice fields? No problem for Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika. According to Russian media, it's the most powerful vessel of its kind and scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the 2017. Then it will be deployed to the Arctic oil and gas fields to blaze the trail for Russian tankers. Russia wants to build several more of these ships in the years to come.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Slow muscle man
Thialf is the world's most powerful deepwater construction vessel. She is capable of a tandem lift of 14,200 tons and used for installing offshore constructions. For lifting operations it will normally be ballasted down to 26.6 m (87 ft). This way the pontoons, with a draught of 13.6 metres, are well submerged to reduce the effect of waves. It is strong but slow with a speed of only 11 km/h.
Image: BoH/GPL
Piggyback on the sea
Floating oil rigs (see picture) or even whole ships can be moved by the Dockwise Vanguard. The heavy lift ship sinks into the water, towboats drag the load over the charging platform and then the ship lifts herself up again. The world biggest transportation ship is 275 meters long.
Image: Boskalis
Explorers of the unknown deepwater
Canadian film director James Cameron dived with the Deepsea Challenger to the deepest point of the world's oceans known as Challenger Deep and located at 10.984 meters on the bed of the Pacific. The submarine was constructed in secrecy in Australia from 2005 to 2012. Passengers shouldn't panic in closed rooms because they sit in a high-strengh steel-ball only 106 centimeters in diameter.
Image: REUTERS
Human beings are not needed
Size is not everything! The ships of the future might be electrically-driven and without any crew. Norway will start the first experiment with a self-driving e-container ship next year. The Yara Birkland will ship fertilizer along the coast of Norway - first with a captain on the helm, and from 2019 remote-controlled. In 2020, the ship will travel autonomously, likely to become a "game changer."
