New construction of coal-fired ships has been supported by studies and by placement of construction orders. Recognizing that a transition period will be necessary, studies underway at MIT are currently examining the more difficult case of converting existing ships from oil to coal-fired. The economic attraction of saving on fuel costs must be sufficiently large to compensate for diminished cargo space and increased weight in bunkers and machinery, as well as capital cost of conversion. These studies examine thermodynamic and mechanical problems of carrying out such a conversion. An economic comparison has been embodied in computer programs which have been run with today's prices and with projected prices of the two fuels. These studies show an economic incentive to convert existing ships to coal-firing, particularly for ships with high fuel costs. The minimum size of ship that spends a large proportion of its time at sea and carries low value cargo, such as bulk carriers and tankers, for which conversion would currently be profitable is 70,000 DWT.


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    Title :

    The Engineering and Economics of Coal-Fired Ship Propulsion


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1981


    Size :

    33 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English







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