Abstract
Three responses that reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions in maritime transport are slower speeds, larger vessels and slender hull designs. We use crude oil carriers as our illustrative example; these represent nearly a quarter of international sea cargo movements. We estimate the potential and costs in these which can all be described as capital substituting for energy and emissions. At different degrees of flexibility and time scales: speed reductions are feasible immediately when there are vessels available, though more capital will be tied up in cargo. Deployment of larger and more slender vessels to a greater extent requires fleet renovation, and also investments in ports and infrastructure. A novel finding in our analysis is that if bunker costs rise as a result of emission costs (fees, quotas), then this may depress speeds and emissions more than if they result from higher oil prices. The reason is that for higher oil prices, more capital tied up in cargo may give cargo owners an interest in speeding up, partly counteracting the impulse from fuel costs that tends to slow vessels down. Emission costs, in contrast, do not raise cargo values.
Highlights
In this study, we analyze maritime transport – using crude carriers as an example only to discover that we revert to an old theme of capital energy substitutability, of re-emerging importance
The current operational speed of the crude oil tankers (Smith et al, 2014) is in the same range as the cost minimizing speeds with today’s fuel prices; When comparing the obtained results to data from other studies regarding cost and emissions through speed reductions, they were found to be within a similar range as those presented by Corbett et al (2009), Sea at Risk and CE-Delft (2010) and Lindstad et al (2011)
Maritime transport is fairly energy efficient and emission efficient. An illustration of this fact is that a very large crude oil carrier (VLCC), roughly transporting the same commodity as it burns – will only burn about a percent of what it can deliver on a voyage as long as Arabian Gulf to the US
Summary
We analyze maritime transport – using crude carriers as an example only to discover that we revert to an old theme of capital energy substitutability, of re-emerging importance. Limiting ourselves to a subset of emission reduction opportunities that exists with present technology, we demonstrate a big potential and responsiveness for reducing energy per unit of output, i.e. fuel use (and emissions) per ton mile transported. We demonstrate that much of the responsiveness is, capital substituting for energy, and in three ways: Speed optimization. Ships have typically been built to operate at their boundary speeds based on hydrodynamic considerations (Faltinsen et al, 1980).
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