How does 150 gallons a mile sound?

Question

Yes you read that right. Was looking at newsweek (or USA Today) and seen an article on fuel mileage. It had stated that the Large Cargo Ships only get 37 feet a gallon. After calculating I figure that is about 150 gallons to go one mile.

The Boeing 747 takes about 9 gallons to go one mile. Reason I am asking is I have lost the source of the info on Cargo Ships and if anyone can provide that source again (to see that if I imagined it or not)

To better help, it was an article about attaching kites to ships and using wind power. It was about 3-6 months ago (I cannot remember the issue)

If you are shocked as I am feel free to vent steam as well.

Answer 1

My dad owns a boat with twin 400hp diesels....gets 1mpg.

I'm not at all surprised by how bad that fuel consumption is, have you seen how big cargo ship engines get?

http://www.vincelewis.net/bigengine.html

Answer 2

ummmm so what?  a bus gets about 5 mpg, but because it holds 50 people has the net affect of getting 250 mpg in a prius with one hippie in it.

that 747 carries 450 people.  works out to an average of 50 mpg per person.  those large cargo ships carry things nothing else in the world can... and in volumes nothing else can carry.  

Answer 3

yep i read that too you know if you think about it is why our gas is so gas now.. we are flying more planes and useing more ships in the waters and not many of any army trucks get better than 6  to 8 miles per gallon if you seen it in the paper you shoul dbe able to look it up

Answer 4

Agree that a bus gets about 5 mpg and has potential of 50 or more

at best.  Observe they only are run on National TV fully loaded out- bound from New Orleans with round-trip fare not a Katrina option.

Because most public transportation suckles off subsidized tax

teat actual value of same comes from squeeze provided by elected officialdom.  Not harder revenue teeth.  Real world quality and service sells product instead of disaster relief.  Next time let's use floating casinos to 'bus' relief; this way we get honest tax paid c**p shoot.

Answer 5

Look at #4 :)) for your answer.

10 Fixes For the Planet

Scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs are focusing on ways to help the environment. Some of our favorite ideas.

Anne Underwood

NEWSWEEK

Updated: 4:43 PM ET Apr 5, 2008

If Wes Jackson, founder and president of the Land Institute in Salina, Kans., has one complaint, it's what he calls "our deficit spending of the Earth's ecological capital," from oil and minerals to water and trees. NEWSWEEK asked dozens of thinkers for their solutions, from 300mpg cars to using enormous kites to help pull ships.

1. Zero waste:Recycling paper, plastic and aluminum is a start, but, oh, so 20th century.

Eric Lombardi hates waste. "Landfills are like black holes, where resources go in and never come out," says the executive director of Eco-Cycle, a nonprofit recycler in Boulder, Colo. "As the world's population explodes and its resource base shrinks, we can't afford that." Instead, Lombardi wants manufacturers to make most or all of their products fully recyclable, using materials

designed to be recaptured rather than ending up in junkyards. It's not impossible, as companies like Shaw Carpets and office-furniture maker Steelcase are showing. Both make products with stringent C2C Certification, indicating total recyclability—and 40 other other companies, tapping into the green building trend, are doing the same. "Waste is expensive and inefficient," says Lombardi. "It only appears cheap because the market doesn't send bills to industry for groundwater pollution and resource depletion."

2. LED light bulbs: Never mind the cliché, they really might be a better idea.

Now that we've all dutifully stocked up on compact fluorescents, guess what? A new generation of even better bulbs may be on its way. LED bulbs burn just half the energy, last eight times longer and contain no traces of mercury, as CFLs do. The best of the fledgling bulbs is the Pharox from Lemnis Lighting. While LEDs have long been used for colored digital readouts and traffic signals, manufacturers have had trouble making white LED bulbs that are as strong as incandescents. Truthfully, the Pharox isn't there yet. It produces only as much light as a standard 40-watt bulb, and it's hugely expensive ($39.95 per bulb). On the other hand, it consumes a meager four watts, and a more powerful 60-watt equivalent is coming soon. In November, Lemnis partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative to help bring the bulb to 40 major cities worldwide.

3. Greener fairways: Not all golf courses are bad for the environment.

When Mark Kuhns arrives at work early in the morning, he is greeted by what he calls "my wildlife symphony"—the chirps and squawks of red-winged blackbirds, bluebirds, tree swallows, goldfinches and red-tailed hawks. That might be normal if he worked in a wildlife reserve, but he doesn't. He's director of grounds at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Golf courses are infamous for high use of pesticides and water. But Baltusrol is one of 516 U.S. courses (4 percent of the nation's total) that are certified by Audubon International as Audubon sanctuaries. "It takes one to three years to go through the process," says Joellen Zeh, manager of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program. Courses convert an average of 22 acres of turf grass into wildlife habitat along out-of-play and shoreline areas. "That's 22 acres that don't need to be watered, irrigated, fertilized or mowed on a daily or weekly basis," she says. A survey a few years ago found that 82 percent of sanctuary courses reduced their pesticide use, and when they did have to spray, 92 percent used gentler chemicals. At the same time, 99 percent of managers said playing quality was maintained or improved. Now, if Kuhns hears a complaint about, say, the weedy-looking thistles near hole number seven, he points out the goldfinches clinging to the stalks and eating the seeds. He usually makes a convert.

4. Kite sails: The world's oldest form of propulsion may soon return to shipping.

Any idea how far the largest container ships can go on a gallon of fuel? Try 37 feet. That adds up to 2 billion barrels of petroleum a year. "If the shipping industry were a country, it would be No. 7 in carbon emissions," says Michael Hirshfield, chief scientist for Oceana.

That's why some major shippers are hoping to tap wind energy to help pull their vessels along. They're not talking about traditional sails, which would require rebuilding ships' hulls to withstand forces from a mast. Instead, they're thinking of giant kites—as big as 20,000 square feet in area—that could be attached to the bow of a ship. "They look like parasails," says Hirshfield. "They could be a relatively cheap add-on, without designing a whole new ship." Not that industrial-size kites are simple, either. "When you launch a kite in a park, somebody holds the string and someone else launches the kite," says Dave Culp, CEO of KiteShip in Alameda, Calif. "For a gi

Answer 6

loud.