New barge technology applied to reduce inland navigation emissions
Let me tell you the story of the Victoria, a barge that produces 80 percent less NOx, 99 percent less SOx and 98 percent less particulates than standard barges on its travels. Oh, and the CO2 production levels are also about 5 to 15 percent less.
How did the Victoria manage to accomplish this? First of all because she's using regular diesel instead of ship fuel. Regular diesel in Europe is low in sulfur as well as less polluting and more efficient. The Victoria also got a set of filters and a catalytic converter which had a relatively modest cost of 200,000 EUR. This makes the technology feasible and realistic for current barges and makes inland navigation really competitive against road freight in terms of environmental protection.
The Victoria was designed under the Creating Project, which is supported by BP and the European Union. The barge has been tested at work in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to carry ship lubricants around.
[Source: El Pais]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 5:19PM (3/13/2008)
Sounds good, until you realize that Europe already has to import finished diesel from the US, Ukraine and Iran to satisfy on-road fuel demand, because refinery capacity is insufficient. This could be remedied by taxing both gasoline and diesel according to their energy content, but that would substantially increase total CO2 emissions from road traffic. Upgrading refineries to crack more of the heavy fuel oil currently used for shipping would be possible but costly and, you always get gasoline and LPG byproducts of which there is already a glut.
An alternative would be to retrofit inland barges to burn LPG instead, in spite of its modest energy density. It's a by-product of oil & gas production and refining that's expensive to distribute on land and cumbersome to use in cars because it must be stored at +10 bar pressure to remain liquid. Car manufacturers are nudging customers toward diesel instead.
Another option would be natural gas, stored on board as CNG, ANG or even - in selected cases - LNG. Methane is the only transportation fuel that can be produced profitably in large quantities from arbitrary biomass feedstocks today. The EU requires natural gas grid operators to allow farmers and other businesses to supply the fuel, provided its composition meets spec.
Reply