For the first time, the US Navy is using a new breed of sailing ship to deliver military equipment, a move that can potentially reduce fuel costs by 20 percent to 30 percent, or roughly $1,600 a day per ship, according to the ship’s owners.

The Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) has chartered the “kite-assisted”, fuel-saving 400-foot MV Beluga to deliver Air Force and Army cargo to from Europe to the US.

The MV Beluga uses a paraglider-shaped, SkySails-System, which supplements its conventional, internal combustion engines. The sail is basically a huge, computer-controlled kite that soars 100 to 300 yards into the air, using the wind to tow the ship at the end of a long tear-proof, synthetic rope.

The SkySails System is operated by the crew from a workstation on the bridge. All the steering and flight path adjustments are done automatically. “Emergency actions” are taken care of with a “push of a button.” But the SkySail is only deployed offshore, outside the three-mile zone and traffic separation areas–just in case.

Unlike conventional sails, the kite has no superstructures that can get in the way of loading and unloading dockside, or scrape the bottom side of bridges as it sails under. The kite folds up, and can be stowed in an area the size of a telephone booth, according to developer SkySails of Hamburg, Germany. And, the SkySail can “generate two to three times more power per square meter sail area than conventional sails,” according to the company. The environmental benefits have yet to calculated.

Though wind power was not a factor in awarding the contract, the shipping company was likely “able to capitalize on fuel savings to make its offer more competitive,” according to MSC. “MSC values innovation that leads to cost savings,” said Captain Nick Holman, of Sealift Logistics Command Europe.

Calculating a gallon of gasoline into pounds of C02 is often quite confusing. Luckily smoo did some number crunching in simple terms to explain it.

I get a lot of questions like this: “Can burning 1 gallon of gasoline really release almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2)? That does not make sense. Does the carbon dioxide really weigh 20 pounds? Can you weigh it? How can this be true?”

First of all, yes, this is true.

My genius PhD chemist friend Maria promised to share with me the calculations that demonstrate how this works. I am going to share these with you and then explain them in simple English so your head does not explode (unless you are an AP Chemistry student in high school and then you might want to calculate the numbers yourself JUST FOR FUN). From Maria (note that a “Mole”, abbreviated as mol, is a unit of molecular measurement):

Here is a calculation that I did for gasoline…

Answer:

Energy Information Administration (EIA) stated that 1 gal (3.78 L) of gasoline (density = 0.70 g/mL and approximate composition C8H18) gives 8 kg (18 lbs) of CO2.

Combustion of gasoline
C8H18 + (25/2) O2 -> 8CO2 + 9H2O

3.78 L(1000 mL/L)(0.70g/ mL) = 2646 g gasoline
2646 g gasoline(8 mol CO2/ 1 mol gasoline)(1 mol/114 g gasoline) = 185.68 mol CO2
185.68 mol CO2 (44 g/mol CO2) =8,170 g or 8 kg
8,170 g * 0.0022 lb/g = 17.7 lb or 18 lb

The full article is available here