Atmospheric Contamination of Coastal Cities by the Exhaust Emissions of Docked Marine Vessels: The Case of Tromsø

Asier Zubiaga,Synne Madsen,Gernot Boiger,Hassan Khawaja

doi:10.3390/environments8090088

Asier Zubiaga, Synne Madsen + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/environments8090088

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Abstract

Docked ships are a source of contamination for the city while they keep their engine working. Plume emissions from large boats can carry a number of pollutants to nearby cities causing a detrimental effect on the life quality and health of local citizens and ecosystems. A computational fluid dynamics model of the harbour area of Tromsø has been built in order to model the deposition of CO2 gas emitted by docked vessels within the city. The ground level distribution of the emitted gas has been obtained and the influence of the wind speed and direction, vessel chimney height, ambient temperature and exhaust gas temperature have been studied. The deposition range is found to be the largest when the wind speed is low. At high wind speeds, the deposition of pollutants along the wind direction is enhanced and spots of high pollutant concentration can be created. The simulation model is intended for the detailed study of the contamination in cities near the coast or an industrial pollutant source of any type of gas pollutant and can easily be extended for the study of particulate matter.

Highlights

Plume emissions from industrial activities and large boats can carry a number of pollutants to nearby cities causing a detrimental effect on the life quality and health of local citizens and ecosystems [1,2]
The simulation of the atmospheric boundary layer poses a challenge for computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
When the simulation is performed for stable atmospheric conditions and it is constrained to the lower part of the atmospheric boundary layer, the surface layer, a stable wind flow can be obtained using a k − e turbulence model [24] and by setting the boundary conditions proposed by Richard and Hoxey [16] for the velocity, the pressure as well as the turbulent kinetic energy k and its dissipation rate e

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Plume emissions from industrial activities and large boats can carry a number of pollutants to nearby cities causing a detrimental effect on the life quality and health of local citizens and ecosystems [1,2]. The main pollutants are waste products of combustion processes, mainly carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen and sulfur oxides (NOx , SOx ) in gas phase, as well as solid particulate matter and black carbon. They are suspended in the released exhaust gases. Carbon dioxide (CO2 ) is the main by-product in exhaust plumes

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