# Bunker Fuel; potential cause of global warming? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186 "2022-08-23T20:48:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shunnedempath](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shunnedempath/32/11796_2.png) [@shunnedempath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shunnedempath)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/1 "2022-08-23T20:48:01Z")
I feel like out-there-annie over here, the red headed stepchild asking for clarification about global warming…[Bunker Fuel](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/bunker-fuel) could this be the cause of our global warming concerns? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/2 "2022-08-23T20:59:12Z")
This is a really complex issue and there are many causes. - Burning Fossil Fuels in cars, for heating, for shipping, for air travel and producing power is a huge part of it. - Deforestation is another major component. - Making Cement is strangely a significant contributor - In general manufacturing and especially smelting are major portions. Adding to the problem is inefficient use of energy generated. - Older not energy star appliances - Incandescent bulbs are a horrible waste - Just leaving stuff turned on when not in use - poor insulation especially in attics - The power distribution system itself is far from reasonable efficiency Some other contributors, Cow/Cattle farts. Sounds funny, but seriously. A lot methane is released this way and methane is actually worse than Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as a Greenhouse Gas. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/3 "2022-08-23T21:07:39Z")
I don’t know the current figures, but if the demand for bunker fuel is, let’s say, a couple of million barrels per day, that is still dwarfed by the production of other fossil fuels. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/4 "2022-08-23T21:10:43Z")
> [@shunnedempath](#): > > [Bunker Fuel](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/bunker-fuel) could this be the cause of our global warming concerns? Bunker fuel is nasty stuff, but as @What_Exit notes, while it’s undoubtedly _ **a** _ cause of climate change, it’s almost undoubtedly not _ **the** _ cause – largely because, even as nasty as it is, it’s only a small percentage of fossil fuel consumption and manmade CO2 emission. This article notes the following (emphasis mine): > [@](#): > > This volume of shipping traffic burns massive amounts of fuel and produces large amounts of air pollution. “The shipping industry uses more than 300 million tons of fossil fuels every year, roughly 5% of global oil production,” says Camille Bourgeon, a specialist in air pollution and energy efficiency in the marine environment at the IMO. In 2018, global shipping activity emitted roughly 1.05 billion t of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, **accounting for about 2.9% of the total global anthropogenic CO2** emissions for that year, according to the IMO’s [2020 greenhouse gas study](https://wwwcdn.imo.org/localresources/en/OurWork/Environment/Documents/Fourth%20IMO%20GHG%20Study%202020%20-%20Full%20report%20and%20annexes.pdf). > **[The shipping industry looks for green fuels](https://cen.acs.org/environment/greenhouse-gases/shipping-industry-looks-green-fuels/100/i8)** > > Transporting goods by sea contributes significantly to global carbon emissions. Switching from traditional petroleum-based marine fuels to low-carbon alternatives could drastically shrink shipping’s climate impact ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/5 "2022-08-23T21:20:52Z")
Not really… global warming/climate change is due to the concentration of carbon dioxide (75%) along with other gases in the atmosphere (25%). Bunker fuels only account for about 2% of emissions. While high, there’s another 98% that’s not related to them. The most obvious areas for improvement are electricity/heat and transportation. (look at the pie charts labeled "Global Manmade Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector 2013) [Global Emissions - Center for Climate and Energy SolutionsCenter for Climate and Energy Solutions (c2es.org)](https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/6 "2022-08-23T22:00:01Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Making Cement is strangely a significant contributor It’s actually not that strange, if you know a few details. Specifically, it’s making lime, a key ingredient in cement. To make lime, crushed limestone (calcium carbnonate) is heated up to 900-1000° C, usually by burning coal but sometimes natural gas. At that temperature, calcium carbonate breaks down to calcium oxide (lime) and CO2. So it produces a double dose of GHG, one from the fossil fuel and one from the limestone. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/7 "2022-08-24T13:51:11Z")
There isn’t going to be a single cause that you can pin this problem on, or that we can fix this problem by changing. We are doing a whole lot of things that contribute to global warming. We’ll have to do a whole lot of things (including stopping or doing less of multiple things) to reduce it. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2022, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/8 "2022-08-24T15:14:50Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Bunker fuel is nasty stuff, but as @What_Exit notes, while it’s undoubtedly _ **a** _ cause of climate change, it’s almost undoubtedly not _ **the** _ cause – largely because, even as nasty as it is, it’s only a small percentage of fossil fuel consumption and manmade CO2 emission. This. The nastiness of bunker fuel is mostly related to the high sulfur content - as much as several percent - which results in high sulfur dioxide exhaust emissions. Sulfur dioxide is a nasty air pollutant, and we’ve gone to great lengths to stop putting it in the air by other means, or at least keeping it away from populated areas. In many countries, ships are not allowed to burn bunker fuel within specified emission control areas, typically in/near ports and coastlines; they have to switch to a low-sulfur (and higher cost) fuel in those areas. As noted above, bunker fuel can have several percent sulfur content. For comparison, trucks in the US these days run on **[ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low-sulfur_diesel)**, which has at most 15 parts per million of sulfur. Not only does that result in very low sulfur dioxide emissions, but it also enables the use of exhaust aftertreatment components that help mitigate soot and NOx emissions. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bunker-fuel-potential-cause-of-global-warming/970186/9 "2022-08-25T12:12:21Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > …The nastiness of bunker fuel is mostly related to the high sulfur content… More emphatically, the problem with bunker fuel is that it contributes to acid rain. As to climate change, bunker fuel is just like other petroleum.