[elihu]

Ships can be made to burn just about anything as fuel, the main problem is just whether existing ships can burn different fuels without major re-engineering. Even electric shipping is possible, but would require substantial infrastructure investments (e.g. buoys in the middle of large oceans every so often connected to trans-oceanic power cables so the ships can recharge regularly). Electrified shipping will probably happen before electrified long-distance aircraft, anyways.

Something like 40% of global shipping is just moving fossil fuels around, so decarbonizing electrical production and transportation would cut back significantly on the amount of bunker fuel needed for ships even if they continue to run on bunker fuel for the foreseeable future.

[throw0101a]

> Even electric shipping is possible, but would require substantial infrastructure investments (e.g. buoys in the middle of large oceans every so often connected to trans-oceanic power cables so the ships can recharge regularly).

A lot has been said about hydrogen powered vehicles, but I don't think it will work for general use. Where it may be useful though is in 'industrial' transport.

It's unlikely we'll see hydrogen 'gas stations' for normal people, but for ships, trucks, and maybe airplanes, setting up the infrastructure may be more practical (fewer, more concentrated stations).

[BoxOfRain]

I'm enormously biased as someone into sailing, but I do love the idea of re-instating wind power as a secondary or even primary source of propulsion for certain kinds of shipping.

[ncmncm]

Batteries for ships will not be a thing. But re-tanking them to carry and burn synthetic anhydrous ammonia will be. It will happen because ammonia will come to be cheaper than bunker oil, enough so to pay for the conversion.

Meanwhile, supertankers full of anhydrous ammonia will sail from the tropics to high latitudes in winter to burn in what had been natural gas power plants, because even extracting natural gas will not be competitive.

[Thlom]

Cruise ships have started to come as hybrids now because some top destinations for cruising have very strict emission regulations that over time will be even stricter.

[thehappypm]

Anhydrous ammonia sounds interesting, got any good articles on it?

[Gravityloss]

https://www.motorship.com/searchresults?qkeyword=ammonia