Re:Electric Ship Batteries Promise Compact, Cooler Power
by hommelix on Thursday November 12, 2026 @05:55PM
(#50475586)
> Methane works perfectly well for shipping. It's cheap, abundant, and we already have all the infrastructure for it.
>
> And to fully decarbonize it, we'll just shift to biogas or power-to-gas.
There is nowhere close to enough biogas for ocean going vessel. Methane has got into the focus due to methane slip. And fossil methane only allow a limited CO2 reduction vs Marine Diesel oil. It won't be enough to reach 2030 IMO target on CO2 reduction.
Re:Electric Ship Batteries Promise Compact, Cooler Power
by cyberax on Thursday November 12, 2026 @07:14PM
(#50476373)
> There is nowhere close to enough biogas for ocean going vessel.
The total amount of biogas production is around 2.5 exajoules (2.5*10^18) per year. The amount of diesel used for intercontinental shipping is 213 million tons, or 10^19J (given the 45MJ/kg energy density).
So we need about 4x the current biogas production. That's entirely doable, especially with the power-to-gas transition.
Methane works perfectly well for shipping. It's cheap, abundant, and we already have all the infrastructure for it.
And to fully decarbonize it, we'll just shift to biogas or power-to-gas.