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Earth Power Transportation

Norwegian Company Plans To Power Their Cruise Ships With Dead Fish (theguardian.com) 103

Posted by BeauHD from the green-energy dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Waste fish parts will be used to power ships in a new initiative to use green energy for polluting cruise liners. The leftovers of fish processed for food and mixed with other organic waste will be used to generate biogas, which will then be liquefied and used in place of fossil fuels by the expedition cruise line Hurtigruten. Hurtigruten operates a fleet of 17 ships, and by 2021 aims to have converted at least six of its vessels to use biogas, liquefied natural gas -- a fossil fuel, but cleaner than many alternatives -- and large battery packs, capable of storing energy produced from renewable sources. Biogas can be generated from most forms of organic waste by speeding up and harnessing the natural decomposition process to capture the methane produced. Organic waste is produced by all food industries but is frequently disposed of in landfill, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions as it decomposes. Hurtigruten is currently building three new hybrid-powered cruise ships in Norway, to be delivered in the next three years.
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Norwegian Company Plans To Power Their Cruise Ships With Dead Fish More

Norwegian Company Plans To Power Their Cruise Ships With Dead Fish

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  • Was it just me, or... (Score:5, Funny)

    by BitterOak ( 537666 ) on Monday November 19, 2018 @10:35PM (#57672054)
    Was it just me, or did anyone else, when first reading this, say "What's a bioga?"

  • Hm (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Seems like live fish could tow better

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yeah but getting the little harnesses on them would be difficult.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

        Nah, that's the easy bit, getting them to swim in the right direction would be difficult.

  • Does this have any possiblity of working? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19, 2018 @10:53PM (#57672110)

    Argh. Can somebody do the math of this? How much energy does it take to to power this vessel? How much energy can be produced per unit of time? How much energy to recovery the fish? What's the energy efficiency of recovery of energy?

    Normally I'd do a Fermi problem, but it doesn't even seem worth it. PURE PROTEIN has an energy density of protein is a little under 17 MJ/kg. Energy density of diesel is 48 MJ/kg. Looks like a fermentation process in involved, so the protein energy to about 8 MJ/kg.

    Meanwhile wood and coal have about the energy density of pure protein.

    Given that we don't make much use of wood and coal anymore (entirely biochemical processes, so therefore "green", supposedly) I call BS on this. This is a lie constructed for PR purposes to get the dumb gullible "media" that can't figure out the Skripal story in the UK is horse manure, to give out free coverage.

    • Re:Does this have any possiblity of working? (Score:5, Informative)

      by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Monday November 19, 2018 @11:22PM (#57672196) Journal
      It doesn't say which of their ships is being converted, so it's hard to say how much energy is required; but I think the important point is that the biogas is being produced, liquified, then used as fuel.

      It's not an onboard fish-guts-to-power arrangement; it's a ship converted to run on liquefied natural gas which is provided ready for use at the dock; at least some of which is supposed to be sourced from organic waste decomposition.

      That's vastly easier and more plausible. LNG is somewhat less dense than diesel; and requires more care in storage; but it's a perfectly viable fuel; and production of methane from organic waste is going to be easier and cheaper when you don't need something you can fit into a ship while leaving room for cargo and passengers. Landfills do it automatically when left to their own devices(though it's often not captured in these cases), there may be some arrangement that is preferred when methane, rather than waste disposal, is the goal.

      None of this is to say that they'll actually end up carefully accounting for how much LNG they burn and ensuring it is all sourced from organic fish heads rather than ordinary natural gas; but even if they cheat on that it'll be much nicer than bunker fuel.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MrKaos ( 858439 )

        It's not an onboard fish-guts-to-power arrangement;

        You just ruined the plot of a futuristic eco-horror where the passengers kept going missing and no one ever arrived at their destination.

      • I'd wager that on modern diesel-electric ships with electric azimuth thrusters that LNG is the ideal fuel. The prime mover is basically a medium sized electric power plant that provides both power for the drives and the shipboard electrical consumption, and I'd wager they're using gas turbines which can then be spun at optimum efficiency.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by e3m4n ( 947977 )

        that was my reaction too. The article headline made it out to sound as if the ship was running directly on fish waste, which would smell to high hell. By the time I finished the article I realized its no different than any other biofuel. Of course those same fish guts and fish heads used to get dumped into the ocean to quickly get consumed by the ocean ecosystem. If this were to expand in a much bigger capacity we would see a decline in ocean life populations since we arent returning some of the food stock

    • Why use dead fish instead of "clean coal"?

      If dead fish would actually work, then how about the president sign an executive order mandating that NASA's SLS be powered by dead fish?

  • Better to use the dead fish as fertilizer (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Instead of powering Norsk cruise ships to carry around the One Percent, wouldn't it be better to use those dead fish as fertilizer to grow food to feed the other Ninety Nine Percent?

    • Instead of powering Norsk cruise ships to carry around the One Percent, wouldn't it be better to use those dead fish as fertilizer to grow food to feed the other Ninety Nine Percent?

      Excellent question. I wonder if the decommissioned material could still be used as fertilizer. That might be a win-win.

    • Re:Better to use the dead fish as fertilizer (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Misagon ( 1135 ) on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @01:00AM (#57672396)

      Hurtigrutten is not only a luxury cruise line. It is a major means of long-range transport for a long stretch of northern Norway, which consists mostly of a jagged mountainous coastline. It is the most dependable large-scale transport for many communities, carrying both cargo and people to places where planes, trains and trucks don't go.

      The dead fish is probably waste products from Norway's large fishing and fish farming industry. If you have ever eaten farmed salmon, it was probably from Norway.

      The world does not have a fertiliser deficiency. It has a problem of fertiliser distribution.
      Too much dung from meat production farms being dumped into the environment -- emitting greenhouse gases and getting into waterways killing the seas.

      • The dead fish is probably waste products from Norway's large fishing and fish farming industry.

        What? All this time I was imagining a room full of aspiring chemists performing stoichiometry calculations. I tried to Google an example but apparently only my chemistry teacher has ever called them dead fish calculations. Oh well.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by e3m4n ( 947977 )

        only a few things would consume dung. Fish heads and fish guts, however, would get eaten very quickly by a lot of ocean wildlife. I think of it much more as a food source than fertilizer. Its fertilizer only in the sense that it boosts a decent population growth of ocean animals. Small pieces of dead fish are a great bait for bigger fish.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrKaos ( 858439 )

      Instead of powering Norsk cruise ships to carry around the One Percent, wouldn't it be better to use those dead fish as fertilizer to grow food to feed the other Ninety Nine Percent?

      Just move the 99% into the 1% and we can all be the 1%.

    • Calling it the "One Percent" just shows you've never been on a luxury cruise. It's by-n-large a cheap all expenses and cares paid for holiday when compared to actually travelling to multiple destinations, lodging and meals.

      We do it quite frequently. We're not the One Percent. Hell I think I'm barely scraping the 60th percentile.

    • You REALLY think people that take cruises are all in the 1 percent. You really are a fucking idiot.
    • Or you could just use the dead fish as SlashBait.
    • wouldn't it be better to use those dead fish as fertilizer to grow food to feed the other Ninety Nine Percent?

      No. We already have enough food to comfortably feed everyone. The issue is getting the food to the people.

      Also, no. It wouldn't be better because we already have too many people on the planet. If we could reduce the population by at least one quarter, that would go along way to your first issue.

  • Not modern landfills... (Score:3)

    by negRo_slim ( 636783 ) <mils_orgen@hotmail.com> on Monday November 19, 2018 @11:37PM (#57672242) Homepage
    Modern landfills are constructed in such a way to prevent things from decomposing. As that leads to all sorts of problems and can end up polluting the area and ground water. https://science.howstuffworks.... [howstuffworks.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Actually no, MODERN landfills harvest the methane themselves to similar effect as the fish guts. That process inherently requires decomposition and is usually shielded properly from groundwater issues entirely. YMMV red states.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Right on; Our Short Mountain Landfill (Lane County OR.) has gas collection and a small power plant. Leachate is a problem, but is collected and processed thru the local sewage treatment plant.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Shotgun ( 30919 )

          Leachate isn't a problem in modern landfills. Leachate is PUMPED IN after being laced with enzymes that speed the decomposition. The biggest complaint from landfills nowadays is that there isn't enough organic material in the landfill, because the power generated has contributed to their budgets.

  • They’re gonna stop eating that abomination known as “lutefisk” and instead power their ships with it?

  • Obligatory farewell as the ship leaves port: (Score:3)

    by rwyoder ( 759998 ) on Tuesday November 20, 2018 @12:08AM (#57672308)

    So long and thanks for all the fish!

  • It's a Ramjet [wikipedia.org] for fish -- if you do it right.

    See? Science Fiction dreams DO come true! (Well, it's a start.)
  • Big deal. So is my cat.

  • When asked why, the Captain replied, "Oh, we just did it for the halibut."

  • Vegan less ships?

  • Faros Chariot line consumed biomass for fuel, outcome was less than favorable.
    http://horizonzerodawn.wikia.c... [wikia.com] :

    "Apparently a fisherman in the Banda Sea captured video of a Hartz-Timor Horus unit refueling via biomatter conversion along the shoreline of Pulau Wetar. On a pod of endangered dolphins, no less, quite possibly the last of their kind. Not to get graphic, but it looks like what happens inside a blender, as if the robot was whipping up a big pink swirling milkshake of dolphin chum."

  • which already use dead souls. Still, made me wonder if they tried live fish first. L
  • The two main repeating themes of cruise liners are fire and diarrhea. Surely someone should be able to figure out how to extract work from either (or both) of these phenomena and power the ships directly?
  • In case of need I suppose it will be III class passenger's turn to be sacrificed for a higher good, the salvation of higher class passengers.

  • I heard there's a Hungarian company that will power hovercraft with eels.

  • I only want vegan electricity!

    https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/o... [ecotricity.co.uk]

  • Gas made from food waste had been around in Scandinavia for some years now. It has powered mostly road vehicles: lorries and busses.
    What may be somewhat novel is that it is being used to power a cruise ship.

    And it does of course not need to be made from fish. Many types of organic material will do. It is just that food waste is widely available and people are willing to get it collected, they may even pay you for it.

  • Dead fish will also release nitrogen, where will that go? It is a usual pollution source from big farming.

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