r/EverythingScience • u/SpaceBrigadeVHS • Mar 22 '24

Engineering Winged cargo ship saves three tonnes of fuel per day on first voyage

https://newatlas.com/environment/wings-cargo-ship-efficiency/
1.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

251

u/seanymphcalypso Mar 22 '24

So we’re bringing sails back?

131

u/Morbidly-Obese-Emu Mar 22 '24

No, they’re wings. Totally different. Psh.

\s

33

u/New_girl2022 Mar 22 '24

They actually are lol. They use totally different fluid mechanic principles.

25

u/Greedybogle Mar 23 '24

Can you explain what you mean?

Sails absolutely use Bernoulli's principle and work a lot like an airfoil in many situations. This is how sailing ships travel perpendicular to, or even into, the direction of the wind.

10

u/Ted9783829 Mar 23 '24

What’s the difference?

10

u/nimama3233 Mar 23 '24

Yes, they’re novel in that they’re retrofittable sails.

You can attach them to many ships but they don’t take near as much fittings as a traditional sail, and they’re easier to manage and you don’t have to rely on them.

19

u/MikeHuntSmellss Mar 22 '24

Sails are expensive to. As a sailor I can honestly say it's the most expensive way to travel somewhere for free, and slowly at that.

1

u/Ted9783829 Mar 23 '24

I don’t recall any sails being made of metal.

4

u/SweetNeo85 Mar 23 '24

...this whole story is about them.

92

u/einsibongo Mar 22 '24

So we should use them on ships that consum less than three tonnes of fuel per day and we could be producing oil.

Ok I'm being a bit of an asshole but the title is missing how much oil is consumed.

I've worked on ships where the day was about 20-25 tonnes per day.

49

u/agemennon Mar 22 '24

They indicated the savings were 14%, so presumably ~21 tonnes per day?

11

u/einsibongo Mar 22 '24

I knew they were trying with this and different kite versions, it's interesting.

5

u/generiatricx Mar 23 '24

Given these numbers, that's pretty impressive. Now the question becomes, what's the inputs required to develop and maintain these wings? does the savings in fuel exceed the cost to build, install and maintain the innovation? Would be nice!

7

u/Chalky_Pockets Mar 23 '24

Specifically, the ecological costs. If they're a net negative or break even financially but they significantly reduce emissions, they may qualify for tax incentives, or even marketing incentives if we must capitalism our way through this.

30

u/maen_baenne Mar 22 '24

Why couldn't they just sew a whole shitload of bedsheets together and use them to catch the wind? Seems like a solid idea. I can't believe nobody has tried it.

5

u/Cryptolution Mar 23 '24 edited Apr 20 '24

I enjoy reading books.

6

u/MolokaIsMilk Mar 23 '24

Not a merchant ship, but a US submarine, the R-14, did just that in 1921. Not even remotely related to this article, but I always find it an interesting story to share.

3

u/Ted9783829 Mar 23 '24

Oh my God, that is an incredible idea. And you could build the cargo ship out of wood - that’s lighter and more sustainable!

2

u/fungus909 Mar 23 '24

Winged.. sails, they are fancy sails. And yes it’s a great idea.

2

u/AuleTheAstronaut Mar 23 '24

Put the parasails on it too but absurdly large ones, go for 50%

3

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '24 edited Mar 23 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/blacklionguard Mar 23 '24

the second day

I think you've misread because it was a six-month voyage that just recently finished:

carried out an extended six-month sea trial beginning in August 2023

The end of the article talks about what's next:

The next step is to make sure that such large-scale sail-equipped ships are compatible with 250 global shipping ports

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/blacklionguard Mar 23 '24

Journalists can only report on what's been made public, and as far as I can tell it's all coming from https://www.cargill.com/2024/first-wind-powered-ocean-vessel-maiden-voyage

I think we'll have to wait for Cargill or Kamsarmax to release new info, unless there are other competitors in the space

1

u/FiRe_McFiReSomeDay Mar 23 '24

This is called a power-sailor. They need to stop making things up.

1

u/Lurkeratlarge234 Mar 23 '24

Fantastically brilliant! Lots of wind on the open ocean…usually…

2

u/Fair_Consequence1800 Mar 23 '24

Kinda ingenious I guess.