Abstract
ABSTRACT Vessel-source air pollution may have a major impact on human health and the marine environment. In this study, a method based on vessel activity intensity was adopted to estimate the emission of air pollutants generated by the consumption of fuel oils from merchant vessels in the Port of Kaohsiung. The vessel activities were determined by using the vessel automatic identification system (AIS) to track vessel traffic and position and to calculate the corresponding emission of air pollutants. It was found that container ships, bulk carriers, and oil tankers, emitted approximately 90% of the total air pollutants. The emissions of SO2 and NOx accounted for 43% and 23%, respectively, when compared to the land-based source emission from the city of Kaohsiung. Management strategies were explored that market-based tools are recommended for the mitigation of vessel-source air pollution along with mandatory utilization of low sulfur fuels.
Highlights
Maritime shipping is currently the most reliable form of cargo transport for global industrial trade
These results indicate that only 22% of all ships were container ships and the number of container ships was lower than the numbers of bulk carriers and tankers were, the substantial amounts of emissions they generated constituted more than half of all air pollutant emissions
Container ships emitted more air pollutants than bulk carriers and oil tankers, the numbers of bulk carriers and oil tankers were greater than the number of container ships
Summary
Maritime shipping is currently the most reliable form of cargo transport for global industrial trade. Marine navigational transportation requires a great deal of fuel oils and emits large amounts of air pollutants, including diesel exhaust, particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) (Im et al, 2005; Lister et al, 2015; Xu et al, 2017). In order to prevent the pollution caused by maritime vessels, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), and in 1997, Annex VI was added to MARPOL 73/78 to regulate the air pollution emitted by maritime vessels (IMO, 2010; Blatcher et al, 2013; Butterfield et al, 2017). The IMO 2020 Sulphur Fuel Regulations aims to reduce the emission of sulfur oxides from ships. All ships have to use a fuel with sulphur content less than 0.5% from January 1, 2020
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