Abstract
Air pollution, which causes over seven million deaths per year, is the most significant and specifically related to health impacts. Nearly 90% of the urban population worldwide is exposed to pollution not meeting the World Health Organization guidelines for air quality. Many atmospheric carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter emitting sources, such as inefficient energy and polluting transportation, directly impact health. Natural gas maritime transport from various parts of the world (carbon supplied to consuming areas) has become more critical. Natural gas liquefaction offers a cleaner and more efficient transportation option and also increases its storage capacity. It is expected that natural gas will reduce the human health impact compared with other traditional fuels consumed. This research establishes a life cycle assessment model of air emission and social human health impact related to LNG maritime transport to investigate the impact of each type of fuel used for the numerous maritime carriers. In order to build a model for air emissions and social human health impact assessments based on hypotheses on various unknown criteria, a calculation model is used. The results revealed Conventional-2 fuel type has the lowest human health impact for annual mode calculations, followed by Conventional-1, Q-Max, and finally Q-Flex. The analysis method for the per year demonstrated discrepancies in the relative human health impact due to the variation of the annual LNG demand by each destination and not only per the trip needs. The results show the importance of using a relatively cleaner fuel type such as Conventional-2 in reducing the health impact of LNG maritime transportation. Moreover, it shows differences in the air emissions as well as the human health impact based on the destination’s location and annual LNG demand.
Highlights
The development of industrial technology has allowed people to exchange products without barriers; seaborne trading has lead significantly to this trend
The results of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions correlated with the type of fuel used and the supply destination are summarized in Figure 4 for both the annual and per roundtrip emissions
Kuwait has demonstrated the lowest nitrogen oxides (NOx) -eq emissions for both the annual and per roundtrip values given the short destination from the origin (Qatar)
Summary
The development of industrial technology has allowed people to exchange products without barriers; seaborne trading has lead significantly to this trend. The growth in the number of goods shipped by carriers has contributed to a rise in fossil fuel utilization. About 10.7 billion tons of goods were exchanged by water in 2017, which constitutes an immense volume of energy use, increasing pollution. Maritime Organization (IMO) has established a sequence of rigorous pollution control guidelines. 14 proposes a radical decrease in the sulfur content of maritime fuels starting in January 2020, where the sulfur substance of such fossil fuel is limited to 0.5% in non-emission control areas [1]. Since standard marine petroleum fuels cannot comply with these requirements, marine engineers and ship owners are turning their focus to alternative energy sources.
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