As nuclear is already used on aircraft carriers, and with a major cargo ship not having a large crew including guests so it can be properly scrutinized and managed by engineers, why hasn’t this technology ever carried over for commercial operators?
Similarly for hydrogen, why (or are?) ship builders not trying to build hydrogen powered engines? Seeing the massive size of engines (and fuel) they have, could they make super-sized fuel cells and on-board synthesizing to no longer be reliant on gas?
In: Engineering
Lots of answers on nuclear, so I’ll reply on the hydrogen-power part, especially since it pertains to my job.
Hydrogen is alot less convenient compared to the fuel oil that is being used to power our cargo ships now.
Hydrogen is:
Extremely flammable, toxic and colorless, so more dangerous when there is a leak
A gas at ambient temperature, so more difficult and expensive to store onboard
Has way lower energy density, so you need alot more of it to travel the same distance, so higher cost as well. This also means you need to make more frequent stops, or dedicate more of your storage space to storing hydrogen instead of your money-making cargoes
It doesn’t make sense to produce hydrogen on board for immediate use (instead of storing hydrogen to consume it) because you need way to much space to generate or store sufficient electricity to produce hydrogen at a fast enough rate to power your fuel cells.
However, the world is increasingly moving away from fuel oil and towards green hydrogen. green hydrogen carriers and green methanol in order to combat climate change.
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