Harry Valentine

Author and Researcher

Mr. Valentine has a degree in mechanical engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada specializing in thermodynamics (energy conversion) and transportation technology. He has worked as a technical journalist for the past 10-years and has more than 2 decades of research in the transportation industry.

Cruise Ships and Caribbean Region Power Generation

By Harry Valentine 2019-09-05 19:08:11

Evolving developments in power generation in countries located around the Caribbean Sea enhances prospects of sailing LNG powered cruise ships in this region. Introduction Many of the countries and regions located in and around the Caribbean Sea have endured problems generating and distributing electric power. Several locations generate local grid scale electric power using marine piston engines that consume diesel fuel and even bunker fuel. The rise of fuel prices in recent decades, along with increasing demand for electric power...

Container Port Congestion and Overhead Railway Transfer

By Harry Valentine 2019-08-31 20:56:49

While container ships have increased in size to reduce transportation cost per container, ports have become congested increasing the amount of time required to transfer containers between larger and smaller ships, also between large ships and overland transportation. In the future, even larger container ships will require ports to develop faster methods for transferring containers off and on the super-size ships, using less waterfront port terminal area. Of the technologies being considered to facilitate faster transfer of containers at ports,...

Moving More Containers Through Congested Ports

By Harry Valentine 2019-08-22 18:46:18

The introduction and operation of ever larger container ships challenges ports to rapidly quickly move increasing volumes of containers through their terminals. One option could involve possible modifications to trucks and trains that move containers. Introduction On August 9, 2019, a ship carrying almost 24,000 TEUs sailed through the Suez Canal, and plans are underway to further develop the canal to transit deeper and possibly wider ships. Within the next few years, major Asian and European container transshipment terminals might...

Jesse Richman, an American kitesurfer and kiteboarder (source Wikipedia)

Renewable Energy in Future Water-Based Sport

By Harry Valentine 2019-08-17 18:19:19

The combination of climate change, the growing need to convert to renewable energy and new technical developments in watercraft provides the basis to develop new forms of water-based competition. Introduction The history of athletic competition dates back to Ancient Greece. Competitive wind-powered sailing dates back to the late 1600’s with competitive rowing dating back to the same time period. Over the centuries and decades, the technology of both oar driven and wind driven boat propulsion has advanced. Modern wind-powered competition...

Seeking to Develop Container Traffic Along the Seaway

By Harry Valentine 2019-07-27 20:35:54

While the Saint Lawrence Seaway between Montreal and the Great Lakes carries minimal container traffic, evolving developments in the world economy and in container transportation offers a possibility of increasing container traffic along the Seaway. Introduction The Port of Montreal located at the west end of the Lower Saint Lawrence River is the busiest container port between the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Great Lakes. It is operational throughout the year and is designed to transfer containers between ships...

Western Med Transshipment Ports and Northeastern North America

By Harry Valentine 2019-07-11 19:00:52

The opening of deep-draft container ports in East Asia invites future development of larger container ships of 28,000 to 35,000-TEU that would expand transshipment opportunities at Western Mediterranean container ports to include Northeastern American destinations. Introduction Work is underway along the Suez Canal to reduce future transit time from 18-hours to 11-hours, increasing permissible draft to 20 meters (66 feet) and doubling the number of vessels that sail the canal by 2023. By the end of 2020 (or perhaps very...

Prospects for Long-Life Batteries in Waterway Transportation

By Harry Valentine 2019-07-06 18:12:01

Until very recently, the short useable life expectancy of electrochemical batteries and their high replacement cost deterred companies engaged in inland waterway transportation from investing in electrical vessel propulsion. New developments in grid-scale vanadium-oxide flow batteries and in molten metal battery technology now offer the sector batteries capable of delivering 15 to 20 years of service. Ongoing development in electrical battery storage technology seeks to increase both the storage density along with useable life expectancy. For stationary application, large grid...

Chondrus crispus has been called sea moss.

Commercial Opportunities from Oceanic Vegetation

By Harry Valentine 2019-06-23 00:19:10

While drought decimates land grown crops, sea vegetation thrives despite growing offshore from drought stricken locations. Over 200 varieties of ocean vegetation are edible while other forms of oceanic vegetation have alternative commercial applications such as textile fabric, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals. Introduction Recent occurrences of prolonged drought in areas of Australia and South Africa threatened the supply of available feed for farm livestock such as sheep, goats and cattle. It was previously thought that such animals could only graze on...

Incident at Venice - Loss of Cruise Ship Engine Control

By Harry Valentine 2019-06-04 00:34:11

People at the Port of Venice were horrified to witness the cruise ship MSC Opera sailing toward and colliding with a small cruise vessel and a dock. Unlike a sudden engine shut down, some reports suggest that the engine was “blocked” and with thrust still fully operational, causing the ship to accelerate. If this is indeed the case, the presence and operation of the emergency engine shut-off system becomes an area of focus. Introduction The smallest of modern powered vessels...

Re-Introducing Steam Power into Commercial Maritime Propulsion

By Harry Valentine 2019-05-27 06:18:02

While naval vessels have traditionally used combined-cycle gas-turbine-and-steam propulsion, there is emerging potential to apply the combined-cycle system to raise the overall thermal efficiency of commercial vessels powered by diesel and LNG piston engines. Introduction The most thermally efficient low-speed marine diesel engine is rated at 50 percent between fuel energy content and crankshaft power. During an earlier period of naturally aspirated diesel engines, peak efficiency of around 40 percent was common. One of the early diesel-steam combined-cycle engines dating...