Posted on 11/24/2010 12:56:50 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Diesel emissions cut by 70+ percent
A new study sponsored by the CA Air Resources Board reveals definitively that clean “hybrid” technology can be used as successfully for tugboats as it has been for cars, buses and trucks.
Thanks to research funded by ARB and conducted by UC Riverside, we now know that when compared with their diesel powered cohorts, a hybrid tugboat can reduce emissions of soot by about by 73 percent, oxides of nitrogen (which helps cause smog) by 51 percent, and carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming, by 27 percent.
The findings are significant due to the heavy impact port pollution – caused largely by diesel-powered ship engines and, to a lesser extent, smaller harbor craft such as tugboats – has on regional air quality. The twin Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the largest contributors to air pollution in the South Coast Basin. Diesel pollution in particular can have devastating health impacts, including cancer and a host of respiratory and cardiovascular ailments.
The clean little tug used in the study, the Carolyn Dorothy, runs on four diesel engines and 126 batteries. Built by Seattle-based Foss Maritime, it began working the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in January 2009 and is believed to be the first and only hybrid tug in the world.
The ARB/UCR study can be viewed online at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/ports/marinevess/harborcraft/documents/hybridreport1010.pdf
fyi
How embarrassing.
[Built by Seattle-based Foss Maritime, it began working the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in January 2009 and is believed to be the first and only hybrid tug in the world. ]
Likely one of the last as well. 126 batteries replaced once a year under heavy use - there’s $20,000 plus. Four diesels plus electric motors is a lot of extra hardware and maintenance. We’ll see.
an unelected body . answerable to no one, not even fellow scientists.. running California in the weeds.. and the sheep bleat on.
No doubt the tug will be steered to State and Federal contracts.
$$$$@@@###&&&***
Is it going to run on fish oil?
This strikes me as being on the same level of nonsense as carbon restrictions on chainsaws. Let’s say we reduce carbon emissions of all Tugboats by 70 percent. Given the overall contribution of tugboats to the carbon emissions, would the effect be measurable? If people, of their own accord, want to build tugboats or chainsaws that reduce carbon emissions, more power to them. I could give a crap, so long as the cost or inefficiency of their efforts aren’t passed onto me. But the EPA doesn’t deal in reason or reality, and once some nut does their part to contribute to environmental pop, the regulations and new standards will rain down from bureaucratic heaven.
About time they reined in those durn tugboats...wonder if they could do something about those big ol propellers churning up the mud? Need to put a stop to that.
Don't know if Fish Oil is acceptable as an environmentally safe fuel.
Maybe the crew divides their time between working and fishing for fuel....HAHA!
Hey Mary, just two questions.
At what cost vs normal tugs. And please amortize that over the useful life of the average tug.
I’d also like to see a chart showing the percentage of tug pollutants versus other pollutants, like cars and trucks.
Sincerely,
upchuck
(The curmudgeonly balloon popper)
People be Damned....
“How embarrassing.”
Surely you jest?
I mean, we need to set up something like the Manhattan project to save the world from the rapidly approaching menace of TUGBOAT emissions.
Doom is at our door and we will have to throw ourselves on the mercy of Providence and the wisdom of CARB for us to have even a remote possibility of the survival of the human race......
These people are nucking futs!
Should she sink 129 batteries worth of acid poluting the harbors......oh, yeah....the tank from the four diesels too.....how damn many tugboats off CA coasts anyway? What the hell good is a change like this gonna do? It’s a UC study giveaway and CAs version of pork.......only with CA, there ain’t no ‘pork’ left - only debt...
*Starkist is a reference only and you are free to substitute your brand but the effect will be the same
**We buy Albacore off the boats and can it ourselves
I get the FReeper Popcorn concession the first time the tug looses power and the oil tanker hits the bridge supports and rips a 126 foot gash below the water line...
Many ships, like locomotives, have been using a diesel-electric combination for many decades.
I’m yer first customer in that event!
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