[imagesource: Anton Chmelev]

With a president-elect that actually believes in climate change headed to the White House, it’s hoped that we will see an increase in the number of global companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint.

The wheels are already in motion in many parts of the world. Japanese shipbuilding giant Mitsubishi recently announced that it plans on building and testing a carbon-capture system for ships, which would capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide emissions pro­duced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes.

In addition, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has adopted mandatory measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from international shipping and is considering a range of long-term zero-carbon fuel solutions, such as ammonia and hydrogen.

One option that really stands out, though, is nuclear, with respect to fuel cost and performance. Here’s Forbes:

As expected, the IMO is considering small nuclear reactors, similar to those that have made [the US] Nuclear Navy so successful. Just like the Navy, the big shipping fleets have very large ships that require a hug amount of fossil fuel…

Besides fuel savings, nuclear powered ships go about 50% faster than oil-fired ships of the same size. For the shipping industry, the increased number of runs per year, and the increased profits, appear to more than offset the increased operational costs of nuclear, according to an analysis by researchers at Penn State.

This may sound like modern technological advancements, and the process has been refined over the years, but work on nuclear marine propulsion started as far back as the 1940s.

In terms of safety, consider this with regards to the use of nuclear-powered ships:

…America’s Nuclear Navy has the world’s best safety record of any industry of any kind. In terms of work hazards apart from combat, it is safer to work on a U.S. nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier than it is to sit at a desk trading stocks…

The Nuclear Navy has logged over 5,400 reactor years of accident-free operations and travelled over 130 million miles on nuclear energy, enough to circle the earth 3,500 times.

Moving goods by container ship is one of the safest ways to get your cargo from point A to point B without a hitch, so it’s great that the industry is looking into more environmentally sustainable ways of doing things.

Berry & Donaldson, one of South Africa’s largest private-owned logistics companies, has been helping our importers and exporters navigate the labyrinth that is international freighting for over half a century.

No matter how the ship is propelled, they take the hassle out of ensuring it arrives at its destination, handling every step of the complicated process so that you don’t have to.

There is still much work to be done before nuclear power takes over the propulsion of large shipping fleets, but it’s estimated that making the switch could save as many as five billion barrels of oil every year.

That would significantly lower the industry’s carbon footprint, so here’s hoping that the future is greener.

[source:forbes]