When one discusses maritime fuel use and its replacement, the discussion often is about bunker fuel and whether ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, LNG, biofuels, synthetic fuels or batteries can replace it.
Leaving aside the issue of Inland sea vessels, ferries, coastal ships, offshore support vessels, service craft, port craft and whether they can or should be electrified, one of the issues that is not being discussed (until now that is), is what happens to the marine market in terms of cargo capacity and cargo hauled, when fossil fuels are replaced.
Fossil fuels are roughly 40% of maritime tonnage, but they represent about half of maritime freight energy because coal, oil, and gas are mostly long-haul bulk trades.
Source: Clean Technica: Read The Article
PSR Analysis: Fossil fuel cargos travel long distances in very large tonnages, so any decline removes more than a proportional share of cargo mass. It removes a larger share of the ocean work and the fuel burned to do that work. This means that elimination of fossil fuels from the high seas may have a greater effect than simply a reduction in the fuels burnt by shipping. PSR
Guy Youngs
