Hybrid Electric Tug Boat Cuts Emissions

November 24th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

Hybrid tug boats are sort of hard to picture for me. I guess they don’t need to look much different, but, for some reason, it is hard for me to put the two together. Nonetheless, they do exist… or, at least, one hybrid electric tugboat exists, the Carolyn Dorothy tugboat. And a recent study out of the University of California-Riverside shows that it does indeed reduce emissions considerably.

Joshua S. Hill of our sister site Planetsave.com writes:

Tested at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the researchers at the UC Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) demonstrated that the hybrid electric tugboat reduced emissions of soot by about 73%, oxides of nitrogen by 51%, and carbon dioxide by 27%.

While tug boats are not the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, they do contribute to global climate change. Cutting tug boat emissions would be very helpful. Hopefully this lonely hybrid tug boat will find a friend or two soon.

Additionally, beyond making tug boats greener, this technology innovation could lead to broader innovations in the shipping industry, which is responsible for quite a large share of greenhouse gas emissions — over 1 billion tons and nearly 4.5% of total global emissions (more than twice the emissions of the aviation industry). Improving the efficiency of ships of all sizes is highly needed.

Check out the full study on California’s hybrid electric tugboat [PDF] online via the California Environmental Protection Agency if you are interested in learning more.

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Photo Credit: Boogies with Fish via flickr (CC license)

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Tags: electric tug boat, electric tugboat, Emissions, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, hybrid electric tug boat, hybrid electric tugboat, hybrid tug boat, hybrid tugboat, shipping, shipping emissions, tug boat, tugboat, tugboat emissions

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.