Norwegian Company Plans To Power Their Cruise Ships With Dead Fish (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Waste fish parts will be used to power ships in a new initiative to use green energy for polluting cruise liners. The leftovers of fish processed for food and mixed with other organic waste will be used to generate biogas, which will then be liquefied and used in place of fossil fuels by the expedition cruise line Hurtigruten. Hurtigruten operates a fleet of 17 ships, and by 2021 aims to have converted at least six of its vessels to use biogas, liquefied natural gas -- a fossil fuel, but cleaner than many alternatives -- and large battery packs, capable of storing energy produced from renewable sources. Biogas can be generated from most forms of organic waste by speeding up and harnessing the natural decomposition process to capture the methane produced. Organic waste is produced by all food industries but is frequently disposed of in landfill, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions as it decomposes. Hurtigruten is currently building three new hybrid-powered cruise ships in Norway, to be delivered in the next three years.

Comments

Was it just me, or...

[BitterOak]

Was it just me, or did anyone else, when first reading this, say "What's a bioga?"

Re:Was it just me, or...

[BitterOak]

"Bioga" is to Lutefisk as "Calamari" is to Squid. Finally, someone found a use for lutefisk....

Well if you feed people lutefisk, they will produce TONS of biogas!

Does this have any possiblity of working?

[Anonymous Coward]

Argh. Can somebody do the math of this? How much energy does it take to to power this vessel? How much energy can be produced per unit of time? How much energy to recovery the fish? What's the energy efficiency of recovery of energy?

Normally I'd do a Fermi problem, but it doesn't even seem worth it. PURE PROTEIN has an energy density of protein is a little under 17 MJ/kg. Energy density of diesel is 48 MJ/kg. Looks like a fermentation process in involved, so the protein energy to about 8 MJ/kg.

Meanwhile wood and coal have about the energy density of pure protein.

Given that we don't make much use of wood and coal anymore (entirely biochemical processes, so therefore "green", supposedly) I call BS on this. This is a lie constructed for PR purposes to get the dumb gullible "media" that can't figure out the Skripal story in the UK is horse manure, to give out free coverage.

Re:Does this have any possiblity of working?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It doesn't say which of their ships is being converted, so it's hard to say how much energy is required; but I think the important point is that the biogas is being produced, liquified, then used as fuel.

It's not an onboard fish-guts-to-power arrangement; it's a ship converted to run on liquefied natural gas which is provided ready for use at the dock; at least some of which is supposed to be sourced from organic waste decomposition.

That's vastly easier and more plausible. LNG is somewhat less dense than diesel; and requires more care in storage; but it's a perfectly viable fuel; and production of methane from organic waste is going to be easier and cheaper when you don't need something you can fit into a ship while leaving room for cargo and passengers. Landfills do it automatically when left to their own devices(though it's often not captured in these cases), there may be some arrangement that is preferred when methane, rather than waste disposal, is the goal.

None of this is to say that they'll actually end up carefully accounting for how much LNG they burn and ensuring it is all sourced from organic fish heads rather than ordinary natural gas; but even if they cheat on that it'll be much nicer than bunker fuel.

Not modern landfills...

[negRo_slim]

Modern landfills are constructed in such a way to prevent things from decomposing. As that leads to all sorts of problems and can end up polluting the area and ground water. https://science.howstuffworks....

Re:Not modern landfills...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually no, MODERN landfills harvest the methane themselves to similar effect as the fish guts. That process inherently requires decomposition and is usually shielded properly from groundwater issues entirely. YMMV red states.

Obligatory farewell as the ship leaves port:

[rwyoder]

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Re:Better to use the dead fish as fertilizer

[Misagon]

Hurtigrutten is not only a luxury cruise line. It is a major means of long-range transport for a long stretch of northern Norway, which consists mostly of a jagged mountainous coastline. It is the most dependable large-scale transport for many communities, carrying both cargo and people to places where planes, trains and trucks don't go.

The dead fish is probably waste products from Norway's large fishing and fish farming industry. If you have ever eaten farmed salmon, it was probably from Norway.

The world does not have a fertiliser deficiency. It has a problem of fertiliser distribution.
Too much dung from meat production farms being dumped into the environment -- emitting greenhouse gases and getting into waterways killing the seas.

The reason

[Tablizer]

When asked why, the Captain replied, "Oh, we just did it for the halibut."

Re:question

[Applehu Akbar]

What are "raunch" jokes? Is it like a salad dressing, perhaps?

Raunch dressing is the one with the fishy flavor, of course.

Re:Better to use the dead fish as fertilizer

[smooth wombat]

wouldn't it be better to use those dead fish as fertilizer to grow food to feed the other Ninety Nine Percent?

No. We already have enough food to comfortably feed everyone. The issue is getting the food to the people.

Also, no. It wouldn't be better because we already have too many people on the planet. If we could reduce the population by at least one quarter, that would go along way to your first issue.