Electrification of boats is realistically still a few years away, but sustainable, emissions-reducing fuels are available now.
The idea of zero emissions that comes with electric vehicles and boats has an almost romantic allure. If we all just parked our internal-combustion cars, trucks and boats, we would be saving the environment and all of mankind.
Or would we?
“You can’t automatically assume that electrification is the answer,” says Jeff Wasil, director of environment, health and safety compliance for the National Marine Manufacturers Association. “There’s much more to it than that.”
Mining the cobalt used to manufacture some batteries that power electric boats and vehicles requires equipment that creates excessive carbon dioxide emissions.
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One thing that few pro-electrification folks bring up is the amount of carbon dioxide emissions required to make the battery packs that power electric motors for cars or boats. Cobalt and lithium, two primary ingredients, are on their way to becoming precious metals that must be mined to make the battery packs. These metals are mined in such regions as the Democratic Republic of Congo and South America — areas not known for being environmentally sensitive or concerned with employee safety.
“All of that stuff that goes into creating the battery pack is energy-intensive,” Wasil says. “There’s a lot of CO2 created in the process of making the battery pack.”
That’s why Wasil and the NMMA hosted a presentation at the Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show in February with representatives from every major marine engine manufacturer on hand to learn about cleaner-burning fuels that are available now for diesel and gasoline engines. “We’re starting to see a lot more bans on internal combustion engines in automobiles around the world,” Wasil says. “The marine industry needs to do its part to reduce CO2 emissions.”
Researchers are looking at new compounds to meet the demands of electrification.
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Most carbon dioxide emissions are released during a vehicle’s “use phase,” when it’s being driven. According to the Federal Highway Administration, a private car or truck is driven an average of 14,263 miles a year. Over a 10- to 15-year lifespan, the reduced emissions with electric power make sense.
“When you apply that same math to boats, you’re going to need a large battery pack, and you’re front-loading the CO2 into day one,” Wasil says. “Boats are used 35 to 48 hours per year [on average], and the amount of energy required to produce that battery far exceeds what you’re going to save in the 35 to 48 hours of use.”
According to research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lithium is extracted from hard rock mines or underground brine reservoirs. Much of the energy used to extract and process it comes from carbon-dioxide-emitting machines. According to Yang Shao-Horn, JR East professor of engineering in the MIT departments of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering, in hard-rock mining, for every ton of mined lithium, 15 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a marine industry goal, but electrification is no silver bullet. .
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Manufacturing adds to batteries’ eco-footprint, too. To synthesize the materials needed for production, heat exceeding 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit is required. That temperature can only be reached by burning fossil fuels. The majority of lithium-ion batteries — about 77% of the world’s supply — are manufactured in China, where coal is the primary energy source. Coal emits roughly twice the amount of greenhouse gases as natural gas, another fossil fuel that can be used in high-heat manufacturing.
For illustration, according to the MIT article, the Tesla Model 3 has an 80-kWh lithium-ion battery. Carbon dioxide emissions for manufacturing that battery would range between 2,400 kilograms (almost 2½ metric tons) and 16,000 kilograms (16 metric tons). That’s as much as a typical gas-powered car emits in about 2,500 miles of driving.
A Refresher
Wasil says electrification has its place. “I think there are applications for recreational marine that make sense, but there are many that don’t,” he says. “We need to be pragmatic when we think about it from an industry perspective.” That’s why he’s a proponent of alternative fuels like biobutanol and isobutanol, both of which have been available for use in certain parts of the country for almost a decade.
This Regulator at the Miami boat show was running on a gasoline blend from VP Racing Fuels that cuts emissions by 30%.
Courtesy Yamaha
In 2018, Soundings Trade Only published an article, “Escaping the E15 Quagmire” that looked at the use of biobutanol at the Galveston Yacht Basin in Texas. The marina’s customers were having problems with vapor lock because of the ethanol content in higher-octane gasoline. It was vaporizing before it hit the engine’s injectors, and the engines wouldn’t run.
“I found isobutanol fuel,” Lance Parks, then the marina’s general manager, told Soundings Trade Only. “I had been aware of it, and I asked my clients if they would buy it, and they said it was too expensive.” He bought it anyway, and once his customers experienced how their engines ran on the isobutanol-blended fuel, they were willing to pay the extra dollar a gallon.
The biggest challenges for these newer fuels in boating have been distribution and education. Conventional ethanol-blended gasoline is delivered via pipelines to locations around the country. Lower-volume blends need to be trucked to facilities, a process that costs more. Those costs are then passed on to the consumer.
Since full electrification is years off, experts say, finding sustainable fuels for internal compbustion engines is imperative to reducing CO2 emissions.
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The pandemic also slowed the momentum that alternative fuels were building because of shortages in the supply chain and deliveries. In 2019, a big push was planned for alternative fuels in Wisconsin, but it got delayed. “The most important thing is to get more fuel in the marketplace,” Wasil says. “The goal is to get the marinas to sell the fuel and have the press at the events when the marinas start selling the fuel.”
That’s why, in Miami, he brought in representatives from three fuel companies that offer cleaner-burning alternatives. “Our industry wants to do the right thing, but I don’t think folks have thought about it,” Wasil says. Of the three companies represented at Miami, one was a renewable diesel made by Neste, a company based in Finland with North American headquarters in Houston.
Dirk Vaughn, head of market development and renewable resource technologies sales for Neste, said his company’s renewable diesel fuel has achieved top-tier certification from Volvo Group for on-road and marine use. It has a flashpoint greater than 60, which makes it less volatile than gasoline, and is non-polar, so it doesn’t attract water. It’s easier on fuel injectors and overall systems, and can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 75%. It also has 33% lower particulate matter. “Our renewable diesel looks like water and smells like water,” Vaughn said during the presentation.
On the gasoline side, VP Racing Fuels partnered with LyondellBasell to produce EcoGen 93, a gasoline blend that can be a direct replacement for ethanol-free Rec-90 or E10 gasoline. “This is a drop-in fuel,” said Mark Walls, director of research and development, fuel technology and quality for VP Racing Fuels, which is based in Elmendorf, Texas. “EcoGen delivers the same performance and range as current fuels but adds 10% renewable content to reduce the carbon footprint of the recreational marine industry.”
EcoGen produces a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and is not corrosive. Unlike ethanol, it also doesn’t draw water. VP says EcoGen 93 costs less than Rec 90. As of February, it was only available in Texas, but the company was working on getting it into other Southern states.
Because petroleum and refineries are such a big part of the state, Texas has the capacity to store and distribute niche fuels. “Texas has a lot of capacity for storage, and it’s an easier state to work with in petroleum than the rest,” Wasil says.
Hyperfuels, also based in Houston, has a product blended with Gevo biobutanol to create a marine-industry sustainable fuel. “This product is EPA-approved for blending with gasoline, and it’s endorsed by the NMMA,”said Hyperfuels president Jess Hewitt. It’s formulated for vented systems that can pull in moisture. The trick is that biobutanol is heavier than ethanol, so it won’t phase-separate or pull in water. Hewitt said Hyperfuels biobutanol gasoline is also endorsed by the American Boat & Yacht Council, and by Mercury Marine
“We can show any petroleum distributor with access to gasoline blend stocks or E10 how to create an ethanol-free gasoline and at the same time improve octane,” Hewitt said. “Our program allows any dealer to start selling premium ethanol-free gasoline.”
Tim Cesarek, chief commercial officer at Gevo, said that partnering with Hyperfuels and other suppliers will get alternative, sustainable fuels in front of customers faster. “We are appreciative that the NMMA is making great strides to introduce these sustainable fuels to the marine industry,” he said.
Looking ahead, there are 12 million registered powerboats in the United States. Wasil says boating accounts for 0.7% of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, and 0.1% in Europe. He added that sustainable fuels available now are a good first step to reducing emissions. The NMMA has established a sustainable fuels task force that holds monthly meetings and will keep the industry updated.
“The goal is not how do we electrify,” he says. “It’s how we reduce CO2 emissions. You have to make it easy for folks to be able to do their part.”
This article was originally published in the April 2023 issue.
