Published

2 years ago

March 25, 2024

Alice Rush

Here’s a piece from Fossbytes, the same people who claim that the costs of maintaining EVs is greater than that of gas- and diesel-powered vehicles.

A cargo ship named the Pyxis Ocean equipped with two 123-feet-tall WindWing sails embarked on a journey from China to Brazil last August, aiming to test the efficacy of the wind-powered technology.

After six months of sailing worldwide, Cargill, the ship’s owner, unveiled the results. On average, the Pyxis Ocean saved 3.3 tons of fuel daily.

It showed potential savings exceeding 12 tons per day in favorable weather conditions, resulting in a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

WindWing’s makers suggest even greater fuel savings with three sails. Although promising, the challenge remains in adapting ports to accommodate such vessels. Cargill is actively engaging with ports globally to address this concern.

A couple of points:

As the wind industry has known for more than a century, the amount of power derived from capturing some of the kinetic energy from moving air is proportional to the area of the blades or sails on which the wind is incident. From the picture above, does it seem possible that huge, ocean-going cargo ships can be powered effectively from these two tiny sails?

It’s interesting that this is an artist’s rendering, rather than a photograph. It is significant that such devices do fact, in fact, exist?

There is no doubt that this will save on fuel. The ships the Vikings piloted around the open seas required no fuel either. If we don’t care how long it takes to ship our goods across the Pacific, perhaps this is a good idea. But of course, we care a great deal about modern supply change logistics.

A Return to Wind-Sailing Cargo Vessels?

Related Topics:EVs Fossbytes Wind-Sailing

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As we’ve noted in the past, the idea of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere is completely unfeasible, since 99.96% of the air around is something other than CO2 (mostly nitrogen). However, there are environments that change this equation radically, cement plants being one of them, where the concentration of CO2 emissions is as high as 30% (versus .04%).

Now, this brings the subject of synthetic fuels into the realm of possibility. Sure, if you want to make gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, you’ll need two other things: hydrogen (which can come from electrolyzing water), and a considerable amount of energy, as these processes are heavily endothermic, meaning that energy must be supplied from external sources.

The good news is that we have enormous amounts of off-peak wind and nuclear that are wasted every day. Please see: Doty WindFuels.

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Published

2 days ago

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With each passing day, there are fewer and fewer American voters who believe the bullshit at left.

Is Trump working hard to stay out of prison? Enrich himself and his family? Of course.

Could be possibly care less about anything else? Obviously not.

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Flagging Tourism to the United States

Published

2 days ago

May 26, 2026

Alice Rush

What’s the thought process of people in the rest of the developed world when it comes to visiting the U.S.?

Conversely, would you or I want to visit some country with a deeply corrupt regime that is systematically committing atrocities all around the globe, and whose leader is lining his pockets?

I’m glad I don’t own a resort in New England that counts on a flow of visitors from Canada. If I were a Canadian, I’d be thinking I’d rather visit hell.