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by akvadrako 2870 days ago
Interesting - but there is lots of opportunity to burn it on boats or remote generators.
4 comments

I don't see diesel being phased out for agriculture or construction equipment anytime soon, usually too remote from the grid and they can't afford charging downtime. However, I welcome replacing what we can with electric. It's a slightly specious argument that simply because we can't replace all use of diesel there isn't a point to replace some usage. City buses are a major use, and are located in a much worse spot for pollution, at least as it affects people's health. How is less fossil fuels being used a bad thing, there is no possible way we can replace all uses in one fell stroke.
Indeed, but—since you mentioned it—there are a lot of missed opportunities in electrifying short range passenger ferries. Many ferries might only sail for 20 minutes and remain docked for a while where they could be recharged. Even on a busy ferry routes, a natural gas powered boats might actually make a lot more sense then a diesel powered one. The only real use for a diesel engine now might be for long distance cargo vessels, cross ocean passenger ferries, and very very huge fishing trawlers (although I would very much like to see the big trawlers vanish into history).
> there are a lot of missed opportunities in electrifying short range passenger ferries

About that:

https://electrek.co/2018/02/03/all-electric-ferry-cuts-emiss...

Not just that but diesel is just kerosene + some additives for lubricity so there are plenty of uses. Kerosene + some other addditives is jet fuel.
And phase out that nasty bunker fuel ships burn in international waters. But then there’s the issue of what to do with the bottoms from the column.
More oil for asphalt in infrastructure repair.