Air pollutant emissions from Piraeus port: External costs and air quality levels

Abstract

Navigation emissions are an important component of the national emission inventories as they represent a significant part of total NOx, SOx and particulate matter emissions as well as of GHG emissions (mainly CO2). Although emissions from ships at berth are an important source of atmospheric pollutants in dense urban agglomerations, worsening thus air quality conditions of port cities, there is still a significant lack of data and uncertainty in port emissions calculations. Moreover, according to the OECD, most shipping emissions in ports are expected to considerably increase up to 2050. In the last decade, Piraeus port activities have known a significant increase, especially regarding commercial ships. In this context, detailed emission calculations from Piraeus port activities were conducted, external costs were estimated and air pollutant dispersion was simulated through the use of appropriate atmospheric models. Total annual port emissions were compared to previous works. Since 2008, passenger port emissions have witnessed an increase mostly in NOx due to the increased number of ship calls, whereas SOx emissions have been decreasing significantly as a result of the significant decrease of S content in fuel used. The anticipated external costs due to health and other damages ship emissions impose, reach to 23.7Μ€. Finally, air pollutants’ concentration levels due to the operation of the port for the scenario with maximum emissions and meteorological conditions favouring pollutant accumulation were estimated.