China builds largest electric container ship
The world's largest all-electric container ship built by China will begin sailing between Shanghai and Nanjing every week, state broadcaster CCTV reported. This is a notable innovation which, for the moment, will only concern river or coastal cabotage, but which nevertheless reduces the dependence of naval transport on fossil fuels.
Developed and produced by state-owned China Ocean Shipping Group (Cosco) , the Greenwater 01 is powered entirely by batteries.
It can save 3,900 kg of fuel for every 100 nautical miles, 182 km, sailed, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 12.4 tonnes.
After Monday's maiden voyage, Cosco said on its WeChat social media account: “It could achieve significant emissions reductions throughout the year and provide strong support for the shipping industry to achieve the 'peak' target of carbon emissions and carbon neutrality”.
Its first voyage with “zero emissions, pollution and noise has set a new benchmark for the transformation of the shipping industry towards low-carbon and environmentally friendly goals,” the shipbuilder wrote. According to the manufacturer, the Naviglio breaks a world record for naval transport.
The electric container ship
The vessel is equipped with a main battery of more than 50,000 kilowatt hours, while additional batteries could be added for longer voyages. In fact, the design allows the installation of additional batteries with 1,600kWh of electricity, similar in size to those of standard 20-foot containers, which can be loaded onto the cargo ship to increase its travel autonomy.
Captain Wang Jun told CCTV that with 24 batteries, the ship can complete a voyage that consumes 80,000 kWh of electricity. A standard container ship would use 15 tons of fuel for a similar trip.
The electric vessel is about 120 meters (394 feet) long and 24 meters wide – about the size of 10 basketball courts. Its top speed is approximately 19 km/h (12 miles per hour). After docking, port officials will inspect battery packs and the battery compartment fire detection and alarm system on board. The crew members, according to the port authorities, received specific fire prevention training.
A fire incident related to lithium iron phosphate batteries can only be put out by a special firefighting gas that is a compound of carbon, fluorine and hydrogen, not with water. It cannot be extinguished by carbon dioxide or water, the usual practice for fires on ships. “For this firefighting method, the most challenging part is the training of crew members, so that they can detect the fire incident in the battery boxes in advance and take the necessary emergency responses. This is our main objective."
In short, technological advancement does not occur without risks.
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The article China builds largest electric container ship comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cina-costruisce-la-piu-grande-nave-portacontainer-elettrica/ on Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:00:01 +0000.