How Much Fuel Does A Cruise Ship Burn
That Wikipedia article states the efficiency of a large cruise ship is between 13-17 passenger miles per gallon.
How much fuel does a cruise ship burn. Lets say thats a distance of about 3342 nautical miles. The 2012 fuel consumption numbers for transiting the ECA were calculated by multiplying the spent power for propulsion GWh by the fuel consumption rate of 0175 kgkWh and the conversion of 42195 Btukg based on the NEMS heating value for residual oil17. At that speed the ship burns 2871 gallons of fuel per hour.
So imagine you sail from New York to London. On a passenger car that kind of increase would be almost negligible but on a cruise ship which burns a gallon of fuel every 30-60 feet it adds up quickly. Hence the evolving fuel option produces a cleaner and cost-efficient alternative to the cruise industry.
The average fuel capacity of cruise ships depends entirely on their size. For most vessels the average consumption is 30-50 miles on a fuel gallon. At first glance this may not seem like very good mileage.
The average cruise ship burns approximately 1 gallon of fuel to move just six inches. The fuel efficiency of a Boeing 747 is actually much higher than that of a cruise ship. Yes the CA ECA requires 01 low sulfur gas oil within the 24nm of the California coast unless the ship goes cold iron shore power within 1 hour of docking.
Its combustion properties and energy content vary with the amount of methane contained in it. However keep in mind that a cruise ship is moving thousands of people at once whereas a car is only moving a few people. For the large ones it can be over 50000 barrels of oil.
An example of the large types is the Queen Mary 2. OTOH walking provides 360 miles per gallon and biking is 700-47k miles per gallon depending on aerodynamics of the bike. Last year the bunker fuel we use cost about 300 per ton.
