Bros in Morocco return a stranded leatherback turtle to the ocean using an ingenious method

Most people think of ships as big, rusty container ships that move slowly through the water. These slow, useless behemoths put out 940 million tonnes of CO2 every year, and their engines are so loud that they have horrible effects on people. On the other hand, Oceanbird wants to change that. They built what can only be called “the ship from the future,” and as we get closer to net-zero temperatures, it may be the key to protecting our economy and food supplies.

Shipping is a key part of how our modern world works. Thousands of these ships slowly move around the world, carrying everything from bananas to cars to natural gas. They are important to almost every part of our lives. Even though they have become much more efficient over time, they still have a big negative effect on the environment. Their dirty engines, propellers that kill animals, and huge undersea racket are bad for the delicate aquatic ecosystems.

One way to deal with these problems, at least in part, is to use different ways to move. Due to the size of the batteries, electric drives are unfortunately not possible. Hydrogen does not follow the same rules. It’s too big, plain and simple. Many people have asked the shipping industry to switch to biofuels that don’t produce carbon so that the whole industry can quickly and cheaply cut its huge carbon footprint.

But there is something wrong.

Biofuel crops need a lot of space to grow, and the refineries need huge solar or wind farms to power them. For the shipping industry to have enough fuel, we would have to destroy huge parts of the natural world. This would have a big negative effect on both biodiversity and the amount of carbon dioxide that nature can already absorb, making this effort pointless.

Also, it doesn’t solve all the other problems with shipping, like noise pollution and animals getting hit by ships. Oceanbird comes in at this point. They came up with a great solution by putting together old ideas and new technologies.

Oceanbird figured out that these problems didn’t exist a few hundred years ago. Our sails might be able to go around the world without hurting any animals, putting out a single gramme of CO2, or scaring away any marine life.

By putting together strong, effective solid sails and a modern, well-designed hull, they made a ship that can carry our large load at speeds similar to those of container ships today. Since the wind doesn’t always blow, this innovative sailboat needs a small diesel engine to speed up when the sea is calm.

Considering how simple this method is, it’s surprising how well it works. Simulations show that Oceanbird can cross the Atlantic with a load equal to 7,000 cars in 12 days. Oceanbird can fly the same distance in 8 days as our current ships that release carbon dioxide, but it uses 90% less fuel. Because Oceanbird’s huge propellers turn around much less, they make less noise pollution and kill fewer animals.

Because the shipping industry has such low operational costs and a small carbon footprint, it is easy to handle the slightly longer voyage times. Oceanbird might be appealing to operators because maritime logistics is a numbers game and ships that are cheap to run help them make more money. There are probably a lot of operators interested in Oceanbird because it could help them save money.