Shipping and the Environment Continue to Clash

The need to act decisively has never been more critical. The impact that shipping is having on the environment must be countered if we are to make a real difference to the damage being caused.

Leaders in this engineering sector have invested a great deal of money into developing the technology to provide better fuel consumption and reduced emissions. It is nowhere more critical than in shipping. Everyone sees the traffic on the roads but their knowledge of the number of ships criss-crossing the oceans is far more difficult to grasp. They only occasionally see ships in port and have no idea about busy shipping lanes.

Efficiency

Marine turbochargers that have been developed with efficiency and the environment in mind are certain to be in great demand as frustrations increase that the world is not acting as decisively as it should. The world may be one market but there are a huge number of different components making up the whole of the world and many are in conflict with others.

Technology has been developed so that turbochargers not only operate on natural gas and diesel oil but also from the gas that is collected from landfills. Brand leaders in international shipping have the money to invest in technology and they realise that investment is essential to guarantee a successful future. There can be no compromise with quality because the shipping companies face all the vagaries of the world’s weather and their ships need to be safe on the oceans of the world.

Emissions and Economy

Fuel economy and reduced carbon dioxide emissions are top priorities for research and development departments. There is unlikely to be any reduction in the volume of shipping in the coming years. After all, it might have been expected during the last few years when depressed demand might have brought some relief – but it was not the case. Now that economies all round the world are stuttering back to growth, an increase in shipping volume is almost guaranteed, and should certainly be expected.

The huge ships that cross the oceans these days harm the environment far more than anything that road transport can do. The figures are fairly mind boggling. A single large container ship can produce more harmful chemicals than 50m cars! If you take 15 such ships, the chemical emissions exceed the total emission of every single car that runs on the world’s roads. Given that owners aim to have their ships on the seas for almost 300 days a year, anything that technology can do improve the situation is an enormous boost to environmentalists and their ongoing battle.

Chemicals and Health

One of the main factors in those chemicals is the fuel that is being used; less fuel means less chemicals. Every part of the Earth is important but so much of the pollution is near coastlines and hence large population areas; that inevitably has an impact on health. Countries are studying the costs of emission on their population’s health and not liking what they discover. It is a factor that reinforces the environmental argument and will hopefully lead to even more support for eco friendly turbochargers.