Posted on 08/02/2024 11:16:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
Artist's concept of a ship with the CoFlow system
Looking like a set of bridge supports that were accidentally installed on a cargo ship, a new wind-driven system by startup CoFlow Jet promises to reduce ship fuel costs by up to 90% using stationary cylinders with no moving parts.
Between rising fuel costs and increasing government mandates requiring shipping companies to go carbon neutral by 2050, there's a strong push to increase the efficiency of cargo ships while reducing their emissions. One way of doing this is to take a page from the history books and readopt sails to harness the wind.
On the surface, that makes sense. Sails have been propelling ships all over the world for millennia and were still used for commercial transport until after the Second World War. However, there are two problems with sails that have pushed them out of the cargo market for all except the most local of niches.
First, traditional sails require huge crews. Something the size of the 921-tonne tea clipper Cutty Sark needed a crew of about 30 to handle the sails and the complex sheets and lines that controlled them. Compare that to a modern 196,000-tonne container ship that needs only 13 officers and sailors – and most of them are pushing buttons instead of hauling lines.
The second problem is that sails are completely dependent on the wind. If the wind is blowing hard enough and in the right direction, great. If it's blowing too little or too hard, or if it's blowing from the wrong quarter, that's not so great. If it's not blowing at all, you're not going anywhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
this is called a Flettner rotor
they are kind of cool, I looked into them a number of years ago.
they do work. I considered making a steam powered one for a sailboat just cause.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhAlWHSez90
As one who did— it did not address how these would function in major sea storms encountered quite freqently. The design is called “at right angles” to wind. When in these huge waveforming storms, large vessels need to head into the wind, under power. Turn into the wind. Does not say how they can be non-deployed or stored. Perhaps it is dealt with- but it would have to be proven for the expense of not destroying a vessel. Insurers would be in the equation, of course.
We need a new meme. What did the liberals use before sails? Diesel.
In other words, if this is bought by the shipping companies, shortages of goods will become commonplace and consumer prices will go up. Mark my words. There was an actual reason, we moved away from the 3-masted schooners for cargo delivery, but these climate change idiots aren’t smart enough to figure that out.
“like solar, this gets promoted every few years.”
I bet you are ranting on a subject above your paygrade.
Or more recently LNG.
“Probably cause male boxers can beat the crap out of women legally now,-)”
Please make sense >
There have been proposals for carbon fiber moveable trimmed “sails” that are retractable— ie. on a hydraulic raised center masts— all centerlined on a ship.
Seems even so that this would not be feasible on large container ships that stack 5 or higher bolted containers the entire length of the ship.
“Hertz is ready to convert their entire fleet!”
Stupid.
“this is called a Flettner rotor”
This one doesn’t rotate.
Wind-Powered Rotor Ships Were Maritime Breakthrough of the 20s: Time Machine (March 1925)
This from a hundred years ago in Popular Mechanics.
With a proven record of supplying clean, natural energy to mariners ever since they first took sails to sea, wind power is an attractive—if inconsistent—alternative to diesel engines, which consume gallons of oil. In March 1925, Popular Mechanics featured an innovation called the "rotor ship," invented by German engineer Anton Flettner. The vessel was hailed as "the first new development in sailing ships since the earliest navigators discovered they could utilize the wind's power." Buckau, the first of the rotor ships, featured two hollow towers of steel, 10 ft. in diameter and 65 ft. tall, mounted on pivots powered by 9-hp motors. The towers utilized the Magnus effect—wind currents striking a rotating cylinder exert a force approximately at right angles to the direction of the wind. After an initial jumpstart from the motors, the cylinder's motion caused the ship to advance, PM reported. Its designers claimed the vessel outran other sailing ships as well as freight steamers.
On the contrary, read the article and the links. The cylinders would be useless if not retractable. You enough of a seaman to know that. We’ve been round and round before on matters of intellect- don’t suppose mine, thank you.
“As one who did— it did not address how these would function in major sea storms encountered quite freqently.”
The article said they are retractable.
“The design is called “at right angles” to wind. “
No. That is reference to Flettner rotors.
Reinventing the slow boat from china.
“Flettner rotors are large rotating cylinders that produce aerodynamic thrust at right angles of the air passing over them. The CoFlow Jet cylinders developed by Zha don’t rotate. They draw in a bit of the air from the wind blowing across and through them and then expends it at another part of the cylinder.”
“one other advantage is that the system can be retrofitted to existing vessels and the cylinders can be retracted for getting in and out of harbor.”
“On the contrary, read the article and the links. The cylinders would be useless if not retractable.”
In the contrary? What is your point? The article says they are retractable.
“You enough of a seaman to know that.”. Absolutely. Years of sailing on my Crealock 37.
” We’ve been round and round before on matters of intellect- don’t suppose mine, thank you.””
Again your grammar makes your post unclear.
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