The developer of a new technology is looking to revolutionize the shipping industry and significantly reduce its reliance on dirty energy by harnessing the natural power that made ships move for thousands of years: wind.
The shipping industry currently relies almost entirely on diesel engines to power tens of thousands of ships worldwide every day, accounting for about 3% of the gasses that contribute annually to the planet's overheating.
According to Interesting Engineering, startup CoFlow Jet is developing a technology in which cylinders fixed to the deck of a cargo ship will draw in a small amount of air, pressurize and energize the air using a low-pressure fan system inside each cylinder, and then expel the air out of another part of the cylinder, creating a considerable amount of thrust.
CoFlow Jet's current goal is to reduce fuel consumption by 20-50% for large cargo ships and 60-90% for small and mid-size ships.
GeCheng Zha, CoFlow Jet founder and president and — take a breath now if you're reading this aloud — a professor of aerospace engineering and director of the Aerodynamics and Computational Fluid Dynamics Lab at the University of Miami College of Engineering, said via Interesting Engineering: "What's old is new again. With the technological advancements of today, wind-assisted propulsion is an efficient alternative to diesel engines."
He continued: "The shipping industry has had a tendency to resist change because diesel engines are so powerful. But now, with pressure mounting, either willingly or unwillingly, it will have to change."
The project is funded by several government agencies, including NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Zha is still in the design and simulation phase of the project.
If successful, Zha's system will be one more in a line of new technologies being developed to transition the shipping industry from diesel fuel to clean energy.
A French company recently completed successful sea trials propelling cargo ships with giant kites. In another technological achievement at sea, a 47,000-ton bulk freighter saved 6,000 pounds of fuel per day using high-tech sails alongside its diesel engines.
Chinese natural gas giant Shenergy has also announced that it's opening a facility that will convert food waste into green methanol, an alternative fuel that can be used in shipping.
Technologies like these and the one being developed by Zha will lead to a cleaner and more livable planet, not to mention cleaner air for those living near harbors.
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