Wood gas boat set to sail

After 20,000 nails, a thousand nuts and bolts, and more than 3,000 board feet of red wood falcata and mahogany, a boat to be fueled by wood gas is set to embark on its maiden voyage from Misamis Occidental to Cebu City.

The boat, named Raina, is designed and built by Roland Go, the Cebuano who modified a multicab so that it can run on wood gas.

Go, who has a degree in physics and a masters in computer science, said Raina is the “fulfillment of a mission for truth.” He built Raina to raise awareness on the need to shift to renewable sources of energy to slow down climate change and avert the effects of an oil crisis.

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“It will be a platform of truth. It is where we can hold talks about climate change, oil shortage and other issues that affect us today,” he said, adding that he will use Raina to visit other areas in the country.

Attention

“If you talk about the apocalyptic threats to humanity—global warming and the peaking of world oil production—across the street, nobody will listen to you. But, if you build a wooden ark from a fallen tree and sail it across the big ocean with fuel made of branches, twigs and leaves, perhaps you will get some attention. We desperately need to act now in response to these unprecedented disasters,” he said.

For its maiden voyage, the 25-tonner Raina will sail from Casul Bay in Sapang-dalaga, Misamis Occidental—where it was built—to Cebu City, where it will be regularly anchored.

Go said politicians seeking public office should talk about climate change and how to wean the country from imported oil that is starting to get scarce.

“Politicians talk about great jobs, housing, economic growth, inexhaustible electricity and delicious food on the table, when in reality famine, pestilence and war are already knocking on our doors. If we cannot get our acts together fast enough, our arrogance, ineptitude and greed will finally take its toll,” he said.

Climate, oil

Apart from accelerated climate change, Go said the world is also facing a crisis related to declining oil production.

Weather disturbances, which threaten food production, have been blamed on climate change. Climate change, on the other hand, results in increasing global temperature that causes the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and has resulted in rising sea levels, which contaminate freshwater reserves and increase the incidence of flooding.

The acceleration of climate change is caused by high levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs), like carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. GHGs are emitted by coal-fired power plants and the use of fossil fuel, like oil and petroleum products.

Motorized vehicles that use petroleum products contribute to GHG levels in the atmosphere.

Peak oil, on the other hand, is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum production is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline.

Campaign

Go, citing international studies, said the world reached peak oil production in 2005, from where it will start to decline. He added that prices of petroleum products will continue to rise as oil supplies decline.

He said the campaign to address global warming and climate change issues needs to be intensified.

If Raina runs at eight knots or 15 kilometers per hour, it will consume only 50 kilos of wood or at least a sack of woodchips during the trip, which is about 100 nautical miles.

While Raina can carry 1,000 kilos (one ton) of goods over 180 kilometers using only two kilos of wood, a truck carrying one ton of cargo over 180 kilometers on land would easily consume 20 liters of diesel.

Go pointed out that wood is a renewable resource because trees can be grown. The burning of wood creates carbon dioxide, but this can be recaptured with the planting of more trees. So the net carbon dioxide contribution into the atmosphere is zero, he said.

Go has conducted research on wood gas or wood fuel for five years. He has developed an ice plant, a motorized bangka, a corn mill and a multicab to run on waste wood.

He assured that wooden boats are safe, even safer than vessels made of steel. Raina, he said, is built to be unsinkable primarily because it is made of wood.

A steel yacht, on the other hand, will hit the bottom of the sea in a short period should something wrong happen.

“And the carbon footprint of a steel ship is outrageous,” Go said. He added that the building of a steel boat involves hundreds of tons of carbon—starting with the mining of the ore to the production of metal sheets, to welding and to the vessel’s crude oil consumption.