Cross any of Nanjing’s mighty bridges over the Yangtze River and peer below. On many a day, you’ll see a kind of haze hovering above the flowing water. That’s generated by emissions from the diesel engines which power the boats plying the world’s busiest river.
But this Tuesday, 22 February, saw a vessel take to its waters that marks the start of a change in all that.
Introducing the Chuan Lian-1, very possibly the electric cargo ship with the longest range in the world. And at 3,000 dead-weight tonnage, the boat has also the largest load capacity of any electric ship sailing the Yangtze River.
Given that the average displacement of cargo ships in the Yangtze River is 2,500 tonnes, the knock-on effect of the Chuan Lian-1 is that as much as 80 percent of cargo on the Yangtze could follow in its zero-emission wake.
This is great news, especially since the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development says approximately 80 percent of the world’s commodities are transported by water.
But since ocean-going electric ships would need to cover vast distances on a single charge, the zero-emission option, for now, remains best suited for inland or coastal waterways.
Ships such as the Chuan Lian-1 dock frequently, giving them ample opportunity to charge or exchange batteries. In the case of the Chuan Lian-1 specifically, it can fully recharge its two 2,200 kWh batteries in just 3 hours, reports ECNS.
As for that claim that it has the longest range of any electric cargo ship in the world, The Nanjinger has researched the issue extensively over the past 24 hours.
At this point, it appears the only other boat that comes close is another ship in China. The fully-electric container ship, in trial operation on the Pearl River, has a range of 80 kilometres, reported Infineon last summer.
If our newly-floated Yangtze River ship does have the longest range worldwide, it likely won’t hold that record for too long.
With a whopping 9,000 kWh battery capacity, an electric passenger ferry from California-based marine technology startup, Boundary Layer Technologies, is projected to have a range of 100 nautical miles (185 kilometres). It also promises to be speedy. Named Electra, its manufacturers claim a top speed of 40 knots (74 km/h).
Such vessels can’t be invented and built fast enough. At present, CO2 emissions from ships are on a par with those of the automotive industry. If that news is not bad enough, a study by the European Parliament estimates that by 2050, maritime traffic could escalate to 20 percent of global CO2 emissions.
But that’s only if we do nothing, and fortunately, that’s not the case. With the Yangtze as the world’s busiest waterway, many more ships such as the Chuan Lian-1 would stand to really make a difference in the challenge to eliminate carbon emissions.
