PuddleOfKittens@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
"In the future, we’re going to need green fuels because you can’t electrify a large ship or plane — you have to use a high-energy-density, low-carbon-footprint, low-cost liquid fuel,”
Large ships are perfectly capable of being battery-powered. In fact, battery cargo ships might well be cheaper than oil-based ships: austinvernon.site/blog/batteryships.html
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Wow, that is a fantastic article and a terrific resource. @JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net, this might interest you as well, since all I could think of while reading it was your wonderful rendering of a solarpunk sailing container ship. The ideas about offshore cargo hubs to distribute the cargo with smaller electric boats as well is good food for fiction and art, methinks :)
Thank you for sharing it, Puddle!
So that’s one use case down, leaving mostly just airplanes where that biofuel would be specifically useful.
JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Thanks for bringing me in! Both these articles are great, and both are good additions to resource lists I’ve put together for solarpunk writers/artists - I’ve added the auto engine one to my list of alternative uses for car parts, and the battery ship info to my nautical solarpunk piece. Thanks again!
myrrh@ttrpg.network 1 month ago
…isn’t that essentially a port with extra steps?..
PuddleOfKittens@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
A port is a slot for ships. Really big ships requires really big slots. The biggest modern ships are over 500 meters long. And dry docks require you to float the ship in, then seal it in and be able to drain the water out - given that those ships are ~50m wide, you’re talking about a huge construction project just to serve one ship at any given time. Turnaround for ships can be hours or days, so you might want multiple bays.
It might well be cheaper, to just have a small ship with a crane or something. Then you don’t need to build a 500mx50m swimming pool. In imperial, that’s 20 olympic swimming pools.