What a great idea that was in the early 80s. If there is left over wood, or any material with caloric value, why would a power plant not combust it with their coals and make electricity out of it? Thus, you save coals, and that wood would rot anyway. So, this saves Carbon Dioxide!
Peter, also a renowned dumpster diver in this area, shows potential biomass.
What a great idea! It is good for the environment! They called it Biomass. Mass, because it can be anything, and you put bio before it, because it is good.
The French and British coal power plants started with it. Yes, it worked. The unhealthy materials in it was not seen as a problem. Many emissions were even lower than when 100% coal was combusted. They got permits to replace it to up to 40% of their coal.
So, the smart guys of the energy industry even asked their government for grants to combust it.
In the 1990’s, also the Dutch power plants started with mixing biomass with their coal. At that time, as an environmental consultant for the energy industry, I was enthusiastic. A coal power plant reducing the coal combustion to 90%, and mixed the other 10% with biomass like wood residue, or animal fats. Ola, 10% CO2 reduction, at once!
And, all that stuff would rot away somewhere – which is also a waste of the precious soil surface in our crowded little country. A great idea, for the whole chain!
In the years from 2000 The European Emissions Trading System (ETS) came. The less a plant emits, the better. So, the power plants needed more biomass. A variety of odd stuff came in. Waste water sludge. Little wooden road posts (along every Dutch road on every 100 meter you see a white post – there are an awful lot of them). Even citrus pellets, transported on big ships from for example South America.
Citrus pellet waste gives lots of heat, so a European power plant with focus on its Emission Allowance, is interested to transport ships loads of it from South America.
Competition
10 years later waste combustion plants came up. Specialized in household waste, industry waste, actually specialized in everything. The industry became big and competitive. A big waste company advertised with: “Waste does not exist!”. They took all you wanted to get rid of and then they figured out what to do it. It came down to knowing the laws into the very details and working on the edge of what is allowed and what not. Also new companies started, building big incinerators.
From the start of the operations in about 2010, the waste oven in Harlingen (Friesland) is exceeding the limits on hydrochloric acid regularly. Now the people say: “We are done with it! Turn off that oven!”
We are thirty years further and the protests grow with the biomass. Since the Paris Treaty on CO2 reduction, many governments are committed to big CO2 reductions. So, they give big grants if you can save a lot of CO2. Well, the big power industry can. They build dedicated biomass electricity plants and the government subsides them with interesting sums. It is that much, that it’s an interesting business. So, the power plants let the Biomass (mostly wood) come from anywhere. It is worth the transport.
The first biomass power plant in the Netherlands, owned by the Swedish electricity company Vattenfall. This one is still small and in a rural area, but it is a start for more and bigger, subsidized plants on more crowded places in the Netherlands.
The more biomass, the bigger the protest mass.
The book keeping system behind the Emission Allowance System says that biomass is ‘good’ for the environment, but the reality is that combustion of wood creates CO2, and unhealthy stuff like SOx, NOx, and many more materials that are bad to breathe in.This protest sign in Thailand says: “We don’t want sugar factory-biomass power plant”, “Factory=Water pollution” and “We raise milk cattle, we don’t want factory”A Dutch protest: Not fueling but foresting
This good idea of saving CO2 by biomass is implemented on such a scale, that it turned into a wrong good idea.
‘That’s a typical example of a wrong good idea’ fellow skipper Adrien said. This was when we talked about biofuels.
Fellow-skipper Adrien: “biofuel is a typical example of a wrong good idea”
Then we discussed biomass and bio-industries. All of them ideas that seem good at first, but work out wrong – at some stage.
What first generation biofuel is meant for.
Let us focus on wrong good idea number one: biofuel.
Biofuels, like peanutoil, were the first fuels we ever used. But fossil fuels replaced them because they were cheaper and gave more energy. So, at the time that seemed like a good idea. However, the production, the uneven distribution of the profits and, of course, the CO2, are serious disadvantages. Now, we could decide to simply use less fuel, less energy. But, we appear to be unable to do so. That’s why we started to like biofuel. It sounds cool, it sounds natural. You might eve feel like you help the environment. But please check these cartoons to see the other side, especially for the first-generation biofuels.
Biofuels require environmentally harmful farming (source)Biofuel production can lead to devastating consequences (source)
For us, it is sometimes hard to make wise choices. We hope we can rely on our governments to guide us. They also seem to struggle with the transition we are in. In the EU, member States must meet national targets for renewable energy. Countries have to calculate carbon dioxide (CO2), but also methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). These are both stronger greenhouse gases than CO2. Biofuels must deliver greenhouse gas savings of at least 35% compared to fossil fuels. It is a start.
Some of the disadvantages related to the first-generation biofuels might be solved by second-generation biofuels. At least the source for these fuels is waste, not food.
The difference between first and second generation biofuels (source)
Fourth generation biofuels: carbon-capturing machines and carbon negative fuels (source)
It looks good, but there might be risks for health and the environment. Also, the production costs are high. It would probably need genetic modification and large-scale farming of micro-algae. So, we are not sure if this is, on the whole, a good idea. The same goes for capturing CO2 and turning it into fuel.
If you want to switch to biofuel yourself, you might want to look at the possible disadvantages for the engine first.
Some believe that a technological fix such as biofuels can solve the climate problem and also make profits. Some think the real solution to global warming lies in consuming less. We think it has to be a combination of both, avoiding the ‘wrong good ideas’.
What can you do? Use internet when you need it, of course, it is marvellous! But, you might consider going for a walk instead of hours of internet surfing. We display the flowers we saw on our walks in low resolution on this website. This makes the site quicker and therefore less energy-consuming. Enjoy our flowerpower!
Fellow sailor with a mustard plant for making mustard or in this case just to use the leaves in a salad.
the small flowers
Peter and Inge surrounded by tall flowers
Agave stalk; now approximately 3 meters high. In front of it: the giant fennel (indeed!)
One afternoon we came back after a walk and found our neighbour making a beautiful sketch of Ya!
Daniel showing his sketch of Ya on the pontoon of Sanlucar de Guadiana
Daniel simply said: “it takes me an hour and it makes me happy. When I draw I feel that everything around me disappears and the time stops, it is a pleasant and harmonious feeling”
And it shows: what a beautiful sketch!
Daniel’s sketch of Ya
Daniel (Instagram: @dandibujador) belongs to the collective Urban Sketchers (Malaga). They are a global community of artists who practice drawing in locations in cities and towns, telling the story of the environment and its people.
A long, long time ago there was a town where everybody lived happy. They called the little place Happytown. Just like in many towns in the country, the people’s wealth grew. Then, the garbage in Happytown grew and started stinking. And also, it caused diseases. What to do?
Remove to the landfill They moved all waste further away. The government of Happytown took care for it with landfills. Everybody recognises that is a pity that all this garbage removal and pieces of land cost money and taxes. But also, everybody thinks it is necessary to handle the problem. When the consumption grew further, also the amount of waste grew. First the government expanded the landfill, but it simply became too much to put on the landfills.
Remove to landfill and air So, after a long debate, the government decided there should be a garbage incinerator west of Happytown. It cost some extra money but it was worth it. Well, the Happytowners living closed to it were not happy, because of the smoke, but they moved. And most people could afford cars, so in the weekends they went to nature areas and spend their time there.
The Happytowners’ wealth grew further and everybody could live in bigger houses and could buy more stuff. So, there was more garbage. And also, a second incinerator, but that doubled the garbage costs.
Recycling As a result, recycling started in Happytown. The main chunk of garbage is the green stuff, vegetation and so on. Each household in Happytown got a separate container. This could be transported to a composting place. And yes, it costs the Happytowners more square miles of land, and also more transport costs and more taxes, but as a Band-aid, the Happytowners can get free fertile soil. Anyhow, it kept the problem contained.
Later new containers came into Happytown. But now on every street corner, to ease off the cost of the infrastructure. There was a container for glass, divided in green, white, brown and blue glass. A container for cloths: cotton, polyester, linen, and one for mixed fabrics. The container for batteries was the most difficult one, because there are about 15 sorts of them, like PbAcid, NiCad, NiMn, FeMn, LiIon, LiFePhO4, and so on. The government issued a list of all of that, but that was hard to understand. But most people could find somebody with the technical education to help you with that. Which is important, because there was a camera on the container to monitor if people complied to it. And next to all extra effort, the taxes to pay all this, rose further. These taxes kept on rising, because the soil under the old landfills was polluted with all kinds of chemicals, for example, from the batteries. So, this had to be cleaned up.
Still, the welfare of Happytown grew. This extra money was necessary, because if you wanted to go for a nice walk in nature, you had to go by car now. Now that all people had big houses, the roads had to be wide for all the cars in Happytown. When the wind came from the wrong direction, everybody could smell the incinerators. All these fumes are especially bad for your children, and who would hurt them with dirty air? So many people of Happytown went to the beautiful hills of Simpleshire. They mostly stuck together in a camping, and they called it Happycamping. Because they were happy again in the weekends.
Simpleshire. As if the time stood still there. All peace and quiet. The people lived in little houses. An occasional car. Many people could perhaps not afford such car, but they also did not need one. Here they did things the other way. The Happytowners were amazed to see how they dealt with the garbage.
Rethink The first thing a Simpleshire man does when he wants to have something, is: think. He asks himself questions like: “Do I really need this?” Or: “Do I need this thing, but then a bit different?” That’s why a Simpleshire household is simple, free of all unnecessary stuff.
2. Refuse If a car salesman comes to the door, they simply refuse. “Sorry, I don’t need a car. In case I need one, I am member of Simpleshire Wheel Share.” The same goes for a lot of other stuff. You just share it, or exchange things. This rethinking and this refusing prevent most of the garbage.
3. Reduce But there is more yield. These Simpleshire people just take not more than they need. This sounds like common sense, but they really do it. So they insulate the fridge and save 50% of energy, and costs. They leave 2 minutes earlier from home and drive 90 km/hr in stead of 130. This saves 20% of petrol, and costs.
4. Reuse And, if they have stuff they don’t need, they check if somebody can reuse it. Cloths and toys for kids, car parts, etcetera. It may take some time, but for all sorts of stuff there is a buyer, especially with internet. Sometimes a small repair is needed, but that gives space for negotiation.
5. Recycle But in the end, of course they also have garbage. Most of it is green stuff, vegetables and grass and so on. They keep it in a separated corner of the garden, where it rots. It is too small to really stink.
The rest of their garbage is very little, about 10% of what the Happytowners produce. There are still the rechargeable batteries which are dead after 50-100 times. Every 5 years a car picks them up and brings them all to one spot to be sorted out and recycled.
6. Responsible containment Then, what is left as garbage, is nearly nothing. Therefore, they have a small landfill, which will not even be full for the next centuries. They keep track on what comes in. They registrate it. The keep control, because Simpleshire people want to prevent polluted soil or ground water. They don’t want to compromise the future of their children.
The Happytowners saw that. All people, all companies and the government in Happytown started acting in this following order:
The incinerators in Happytown were not necessary anymore and the air became clean again. People rethought about working at home in stead of standing with their cars in the traffic jams, nose picking and irritating each other. So many people sold their cars. and shared them. The big roads around the town were not necessary anymore. So they made a park there instead, all around the town, which they called “Simpleshire Park”. All Happytowners walked and camped there in the weekends and if a child asked its parent about the name of the park, the parents told them this fairy-tale.
And all Happytown people, all families and companies, lived and worked happily ever after.
We carefully hoisted our lead-acid batteries into the dinghy of a fellow-sailor. He is happy to re-use them, and we are happy that they don’t have to be recycled yet. So, we are both happy. The alternative would have been to sell them as old lead, but we prefer re-use to recycle.
Why did we decide to replace the batteries? Well, we noticed our lead-acid batteries got more difficulties in loading and unloading. They also needed more energy for themselves, so they were less efficient. Also, because we could not travel during COVID, we decided to use our time on Guadiana river to replace the batteries. After giving it some thought we knew we wanted to change to lithium-ferro-phoshae. Lighter and much more efficient. So, in January we ordered batteries and… lead.
Work in progress: taking the old batteries out and replacing them with the new ones.
The 24 lead-acid batteries that have served ‘Ya’ faithfully for the past 7 years not only served for energy storage, but also for ballast.To prepare the battery-banks for the new batteries, we had to take the old ones out, They weigh 60 kilogrammes each so we were very glad Hadrien helped us.Afterwards, we have been living with 1400 kilogrammes of batteries on our side decks for a few weeks. We connected them and used them for cooking etcetera.Because the new batteries weigh only 300 kilogrammes instead of 1400, we had to put in extra lead to keep Ya’s stability.
To be exact, we have put in 24 pieces, in total 991 kilogrammes of lead. We were allowed to use a little less than we removed because the weight could be put lower in the boat.The new batteries arrived in time.We prepared for the structures to keep the new batteries in place.Peter carefully put together lots of connecting pieces for the new batteries.Above the lead, a construction to keep the new batteries stable and dry.And, in the spot where we had 1 lead-acid batteries, we can now fit in 4 lithium-ferro-phosfate batteries.Slowly but surely the new batteries find their way to the battery-bank.Peter makes sure the batteries will keep in place also when sailing.A demo-construction of 2 sets of 3 LFP-batteries.
The next phase is the that we have to connect the battery-banks to all our energy-input systems (solar, hydro, wind). We hope to be able to tell you how we did this in one of our next blogs.
Orcelle: this first design is already more than 10 years old (source)
Wallenius Willemsen explains why cargo needs to shift to wind power
Nowadays, cargo companies search for alternative ways of shipping. Of course, you can think of wind assisted shipping. But you can also think of completely fossil free shipping using wind, sun and waves. Check this and understand why, all of a sudden, Ya feels very real, but also, very small…
Sail Cargo Ships
The “Wind Challenger Project” reduces fuel consumption by using sails and engines. For more information. https://www.mol.co.jp/en/sustainabili…The B9 concept uses wind energy. This delivers 60% of their power. The rest comes from engines that are powered by bio-gas. (source: www.b9energy.co.uk)
The WASP has the ability to load and unload cargo by herself since the masts can also be used as cranes. The WASP will make use of the trade winds.
KTH built a model of the Oceanbird. (source: Wallenius Marine)
Test: Oceanbird (scale model) in sea basin (source: Wallenius Marine)
Wallenius Wilhelmsen will build the Orcelle Wind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkBRzL3WDdQ
Neoline in France seeks orders for a 136-metre vessel. This can also be used for transporting cars or farm machinery. This carrier could cut emissions by 90%. Source: www.neoline.eu
Wind and Solar Ships
Eco Marine Power uses rigid sails for wind and solar energy. The sails can be used with other green ship technologies.
Wind, Solar, Wave and Hydrogen
Orcelle combines sustainable forms of energy. Sails, solar panels and waves generate the energy the ship needs. Also, the ship can produce hydrogen. This way, it can store energy for later use. First, Wallenius Wilhelmsen will build the Orcelle Wind (see above).
NYK uses a combination of common sense and new designs to innovate.
Sky Sail Ships
The kite reduces the load on the engine and lowers fuel consumption. Therefore, it is now used on several types of cargo ships with good results. Click here to find out how skysails work.
Wind assisted sailing ships
Rotors are special vertical spinning cylinders using the Magnus Effect. These rotors can be quite high,so Sea Cargo decided to use tilting Rotor Sails. (source: Norsepower Ltd)
New technologies can lead to a fuller shift to wind. For example, the development of wing sails. And, for instance the America’s Cup inspires for tougher, lighter materials. Another example: better long-term weather forecasts will allow for better route planning. This way, ships can avoid storms or doldrums.
In short: cargo shipping is heading for the future!
We buy stuff from all over the world for prices next to nothing, and its transport costs next to nothing. Next to nothing? Well, the fossil sea transport creates lots of environmental impact. This will cost our next generations an enormous amount of money, health, lives and wellbeing. Therefore, this article is about alternative shipping methods. Sailing cargo methods!
Our next generation working together in the yards of a classic square sailing ship (source: Tres Hombres).
One of our partners of the very first hour is Fair Transport, a Dutch enterprise since 2007. Three young, professional sailors wanted to change shipping cargo. So, they bought an old mine sweeper. Through sheer positivism, energy and with the help of volunteers and sponsors, they converted her into the brigantine “Tres Hombres”.
Captain and co-founder Andreas Lackner explains what Tres Hombres is all about in 1 minute.
Since 2010 she sails cargo between Europe and the Caribbean. She carries a maximum of 40 tons of organic and traditionally crafted goods like, cocoa, coffee, honey & canned fish, and, of course, the delicious Tres Hombres rum.
The brigantine ‘Tres Hombres’ is the pioneer of fossil free cargo.
Tres Hombres is the first fossil free cargo ship. It is hard to find sailors who do not know her!
The 20 meter‘Nordlys’ doubled Fair Transport’s fleet; she covers the coastal shipping.
The fleet has been doubled by the Nordlys (video). The Nordlys carries a maximum of 25 tons of organic and traditionally crafted goods like wine, whisky and olive oil.
To the deep sea trade with larger ships
In Costa Rica, a group of young sailcargo shipbuilders are working on ‘Ceiba’, a topsail schooner of 33,5 meter, able to carry 250 tonnes.
The fossil free cargo sailing needs bigger transports over the largest waters. Like the tea clippers in the 1800s, sailing from China and Australia to England.
So, it is time for the Ecoclipper www.ecoclipper.org. She will be a prototype for a line of fast, traditionally built, emission free cargoships.
The ship will be a steel replica of the Dutch clippership Noach, originally built in 1857 in Kinderdijk. It has been stated by historians that the Noach has been the fastest Dutch sailing vessel ever!
Ecoclipper500 will operate in the deep sea trade: Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Pacific and around the world. She will be rigged with three square rigged masts, carrying a total of 976 m2 of sail area, without mechanical propulsion whatsoever. And, the Ecoclipper500 will ship 500 tons of cargo, 2 times the volume of Ceiba, making it the largest vessel of the fleet.
The Ecoclipper500, a replica of the fast 1857 clippership ‘Noah’, will be the first fossil free ship specially designed for world-around, deep sea trade.
Jorne Langelaan, the initiator of the Ecoclipper, tells his vision within a minute, English spoken with Dutch subtitles
On Ya we live fossil free. While Peter is working on the batteries, Inge experiments with bubbles to avoid plastics and chemical waste.
One of the experiments: tooth paste! Inge uses baking soda instead of tooth paste. This saves plastic, all kinds of unnessecary additions and a big CO2 emission on making the tooth paste.
The bottles with Octocrylene went into the garbage.
Now it is time to check our other cosmetics and detergents.
It is hard to get environmentally friendly detergents in some places.
The warning signs on the back of the bottles tell the story in any language. Obviously, you would want to avoid the ‘skull-and-bones’ and ‘dead-tree-dead-fish’ symbols. Also, the exclamation mark seems worth avoiding. That is, if the icons appear because for some categories it is not mandatory to show the label.
So, what could help? We did an experiment using baking soda. The can we had on board was quite old but still reacted with vinegar (bubbles), so, it would still work.
In these pictures you see how baking soda, vinegar, patience and some extra effort turned the black inside of Inge’s teacup amazingly white. But don’t use it on aluminium, silver, gold, or marble!
Encouraged, we passed on to toothpaste. We buy the ones that do not contain microbeads, but we wondered if we could also avoid using plastic tubes. Baking soda is supposed to work so we tried it. It is really nice how clean it leaves your teeth (see video above)
If you don’t like the salty taste or want to have an added taste like peppermint you can just search for plastic free tooth paste tablets and you will find several sites that provide them.
Deodorant, really?
Baking soda appears to have magic qualities. Would it also work as a deodorant? Inge only likes one specific brand and that is not widely available. So, that was also worth a try. A really easy recipe for deodorant: 1:3 baking soda and coconut oil. Melt, mix and allow some time for cooling down. Use sparingly.
Test results: it smells slightly like coconut, does not irritate the armpits and it stood the odour test of a nice walk in the Spanish sun.
If we replace our toothpaste, deodorant and detergents for the baking soda alternative this will save us at least 4 tubes of toothpaste, 2 deodorants and 2 bottles of detergent per year. Less chemical waste, less plastic, just as clean and fresh, more space on the boat and in addition, some savings. Not bad!
Sunday morning on the Guadiana river. We were about to finish our slow breakfast and we heared some tones of music. We looked outside. Watch the movie and turn on the volume. Enjoy peace and quiet.
