Shore-side Electricity Research Articles

Identifying the unique challenges of installing cold ironing at small and medium ports – The case of aberdeen

Emissions from shipping contribute significantly to both climate change and local air pollution. Cold ironing (onshore power supply) reduces emissions while ships are berthed in port by providing power from shore-side electricity rather than onboard auxiliary generators. Previous research has focused on installing the technology in large ports but if policy goals (particularly in the EU) are to be achieved then smaller ports must also install the technology. Therefore, this study examines the feasibility of installing cold ironing in a medium sized port with several small berths, based on the case of Aberdeen.Vessel call data were analysed to calculate energy demand and a cold ironing system was designed, including separate OPS units for numerous small berths. The total capital cost was £6.6 m (€7.4 m) and the system could save annual emissions of 108 tonnes of NOx, 2.7 tonnes of PM and 4,767 tonnes of CO2 emissions worth £1.3 m (€1.4 m). Payback scenarios were examined via SCBA, based on the external costs of potential emission savings. In the best case scenario, the substantial external cost benefits would return the system capital and operating costs in only 7.0 years, or 3.5 years if subsidised 50% by the EU. Challenges result from several small berths needing individual OPS units, long cables and cable reel storage, as well as the need for several vessels to install the onboard technology, which must be overcome if ports besides the large cruise and container ports are to install cold ironing.

The Use of Generating Sets with ING Gas Engines in “Shore to Ship” Systems

Abstract The main sources of air pollution in ports are ships, on which electrical energy is produced in the autonomous generating sets Diesel-Generator. The most effective way to reduce harmful exhaust emissions from ships is to exclude marine generating sets and provide the shore-side electricity in “Shore to Ship” system. The main problem in the implementation of power supply for ships from land is connected with matching parameters of voltage in onshore network with marine network. Currently, the recommended solution is to supply ships from the onshore electricity network with the use of power electronic converters. This article presents an analysis of the „Shore to Ship” system with the use of generating sets with LNG gas engines. It shows topologies with LNG - Generator sets, environmental benefits of such a solution, advantages and disadvantages.

Abatement of air pollution at an aegean island port utilizing shore side electricity and renewable energy

The air pollutant emissions of the ships at port represent a small percentage of the overall emissions from shipping however they are concentrated in a small area. In Mytilene, Lesvos, the port is located within the city limits, resulting in air pollution, congestion and noise, especially during the tourist season. The aim of this study is to estimate the quantities of particulate matter and CO2 emitted by ships in the port of Mytilene and to explore the potential of shore side electricity to reduce the emissions. The emissions were estimated using the bottom–up methodology, based on the activity of the ships in the port (berthing, maneuvering). Simulation of renewable energy sources was made using Homer Energy microgrid simulation software. The results showed that between the 10th and 20th of August 2012, there were 40 calls of passenger ships, tankers and bulk carriers in the port of Mytilene, emitting 441kg of PM10 and 282 metric tonnes of CO2. About 63% of PM10 and 77% of CO2 were emitted at the berthing phase and the remaining during the maneuvering. These emissions could be reduced by providing electricity to the ships from a hybrid renewable energy system with wind turbines and photovoltaics, connected to the grid. Simulations showed that the total energy requirements of the ships in the port of Mytilene could be covered by four 1.5MW wind turbines combined with a 5MW photovoltaics. With this configuration, renewable energy will exceed the ships' electricity needs for most of the time in order not to increase the power station's load. The excess energy could be fed to the islands' grid, so a costly battery storage system is not necessary to handle the variations of alternative energy. In this way, a considerable reduction of the CO2 and PM10 emissions by the ships in the port occurs, providing a viable solution for a cleaner and healthier environment.

Shore Side Electricity in Europe: Potential and environmental benefits

In the context of reducing emissions from the transport sector, the EU Commission envisions a strong modal shift to energy efficient modes including maritime shipping and inland shipping, as an alternative for road transport. In view of the expected growth of the sector, the emissions from waterborne transport are a key concern. When at berth, ships typically use their auxiliary engines to generate electrical power for communications, lighting, ventilation and other on-board equipment. The extended use of vessels’ auxiliary engines augments greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution in the adjacent ports, which are typically located in or near densely populated areas, thus leading to dangerous health and environmental effects. Shore Side Electricity (SSE) is an option for reducing the unwanted environmental impacts of ships at berth, i.e. GHG emissions, other air pollutants (NOx, SOx, PM) and noise of ships using their auxiliary engines. This paper quantifies the economic and environmental potential for SSE in Europe, through detailed estimation of in-port ships’ emissions and relevant energy demand, providing an insight of the expected barriers for implementation and formulating recommendations on policy actions that could accelerate the implementation of SSE in European harbors.

Cold ironing and onshore generation for airborne emission reductions in ports

Cold ironing (or onshore power supply) addresses airborne emissions while ships are berthed in port. By providing the electrical power demands from shoreside electricity, the onboard auxiliary generators can be switched off for a locally emission-free solution. The net emissions will of course be dependent on the actual shoreside electricity mix, but reductions can be realised in most cases. This study looks at the various electrical configurations available for cold ironing of berthed vessels. Shoreside generation using liquefied natural gas as an alternative fuel is also considered as a complement to cold ironing. This provides the possibility of hybridised solutions combining power supply from the grid or from clean, onsite generators. Using real data from an operational European port, the various cold ironing configurations are modelled and optimal trade-off solutions were identified. This is achieved by considering the reduction in emissions and minimisation of component costs as a multi-objective non-linear optimisation problem. The results show that CO2 emissions can be reduced by up to 40% by using cold ironing, while the use of liquefied natural gas shore generation can reduce the sulphur and particulate emissions in port to extremely low levels.

Recurrent atmospheric discharges from port operations: A problem of environmental management in the port of Santos, Brazil

The objective of this research is to investigate the dimension of the problem of recurrent atmospheric emissions from the naval activity in the port of Santos, considering the future movements of ships and trucks and the consequences of the probable expansion of the port. In combination with an emission factor that states the mass of an emitted pollutant related to either the work produced by ships’ engines or the mass of combusted fuel, the total emitted mass of a pollutant can be established. The size distribution of particles is potentially important in impact assessments since there are indications that fine and ultrafine particles are associated with higher health risks than coarse particles. The results from the impact assessments are in favor of abatement technologies like selective catalytic reduction (SCR), a shore-side electricity (SSE) connection, and the use of fuel with a low sulfur content from a local and regional cost–benefit perspective. Key words: Atmospheric emission, naval activity, environmental management.

Cost assessment of ship emission reduction methods at berth: the case of the Port of Piraeus, Greece

This paper addresses the problem of ship exhaust emissions at the Port of Piraeus and undertakes the challenge of finding a cost-effective option for its reduction according to the upcoming requirements of the 2005/33/EU Directive, through analysis of port traffic data and the utilisation of the experience gained through previous studies in this field. The Port of Piraeus makes a particularly suitable reference for this type of work, since it is one of the busiest and highly urbanised ports in the world. It is shown that cruise ships calling at Piraeus fulfill the criteria of selection for such an exercise by virtue of their frequency of calling, berth power requirements and time spent at berth. It was found that, according to current practice, cruise ships at berth consume 11 034 tons of fuel and produce 620.1 tons of NOX, 274.8 tons of SO2 and 20.7 tons of PM, totalling to 915.6 tons of exhaust emissions per year. This represents an overall annual cost of 21 million euro, divided between private (bunkering) and external (emission damage) costs by 19.4% and 80.6%, respectively. With regard to the upcoming EU requirements for ship power at berth, it was found that, irrespective of whether operating on ultralow-sulphur (0.1% sulphur) fuel or on shore-side electricity, a sizeable reduction in emissions and associated external costs is achieved, whereas private costs were always higher than those of the current practice. Comparing the two options, it was further found that the shore-side electricity presents the lowest external costs but highest private costs, whereas the overall costs are around 25% lower than the onboard use of ultralow-sulphur fuel.

International Treaties and U.S. Laws as Tools to Regulate the Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ships and Ports

AbstractRegulations on marine greenhouse gas emissions are possible, and some are in progress, using international treaty law and federal regulations. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), port and coastal States have jurisdiction over ships entering their waters and have the ability to implement mitigation strategies, ranging from mandatory speed reduction to installing shore-side electricity or sequestration equipment. Under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex VI, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is determining the feasibility of design, fuel, and operation reforms. Alternatively, the implementation may be usurped by a global cap-and-trade scheme from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tightening the Clean Air Act § 213 regulations governing marine vessels and U.S. waters were recently designated a SOx Emission Control Area. However, carbon dioxide emissions from marine vessels remain unregulated.

Fuel consumption and associated emissions from seagoing ships at berth derived from an on-board survey

A methodology is presented to estimate the emissions of ships at berth based on their actual fuel consumption and the fuel quality. Accurate estimates of emissions from ships at berth demand reliable knowledge of the fuel consumption while at berth and associated fuel characteristics. However, assured information about energy use and fuel consumption of seagoing ships at berth is scarce. Proper estimation of ship emissions at berth is crucial for understanding the impact of shipping emissions on air quality and health in harbour cities as well as for a proper evaluation of the impact of abatement measures such as shore-side electricity and/or restrictions of sulphur content for shipping fuels to be used in ports. Therefore, a survey of energy consumption and fuel use on board of 89 seagoing ships was made in close cooperation with the Port of Rotterdam. Rotterdam is the major port of Europe ensuring that the results will have relevance for the larger European domain. On board of the ships at berth, a questionnaire was filled in by the chief engineer of that particular ship, assisted by two former mechanical shipping engineers employed at our organization. Survey results as well as the emission estimations are compared to the (scarce) information that is available and expert judgements in recent studies. The compiled survey data underlie the current Dutch emission estimation methodology for emissions of ships at berth.

Air Pollution: Salt Mist Is the Right Seasoning for Ozone

Vol. 116, No. 7 EnvironewsOpen AccessAir Pollution: Salt Mist Is the Right Seasoning for Ozone Carol Potera Carol Potera Search for more papers by this author Published:1 July 2008https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.116-a288Cited by:2AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Shipping ports face a newly discovered air pollution problem—the production of the ozone precursor nitryl chloride. Nitryl chloride was detected for the first time in the lowest part of the Earth’s atmosphere by a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that was monitoring air quality in Galveston Bay to understand why nearby Houston, Texas, has one of the worst air pollution problems in the nation. Salts in ocean mists were thought to be relatively inert until the connection to ozone was uncovered. “People never before thought that nitryl chloride was important,” says James Roberts, a NOAA research chemist and the team’s coordinator.In the summer of 2006, the researchers used chemical ionization mass spectrometry to detect trace levels of airborne chemicals, including nitryl chloride. They found that when ship exhaust plumes rich in nitrogen oxides (NOx) meet ocean air at night, unexpectedly high levels of nitryl chloride form due to the NOx species dinitrogen pentoxide combining with chloride in sea mist. After the sun comes up, this buildup of photoactive nitryl chloride splits into chlorine atoms and nitrogen dioxide. These compounds then accelerate the production of ozone, a key component of smog.The amount of nitryl chloride measured by Roberts and colleagues—as high as 650 ppt by volume, or about 15% of total reactive nitrogen species from ship exhaust—is much greater than that estimated by standard air pollution models, which have taken into account neither the heightened presence of nitryl chloride around ports nor its importance in forming ozone. “This preliminary study indicates that nitryl chloride chemistry could make a significant contribution—up to ten to thirty percent—to ozone production during the morning hours in Houston,” says Roberts. These results were published in the May 2008 issue of Nature Geoscience.The study findings point to the need to control NOx emissions from fossil fuel combustion in coastal cities, says Roberts. He adds that one solution may be to require docked ships to use local electrical power, rather than burning diesel fuel, to generate electricity. Some ports have begun to pursue this course of action [see “Ports in a Storm,” EHP 114:A222–A231 (2006)]. The 10-year $750-million Middle Harbor Redevelopment Project proposed by the Port of Long Beach (California) would, among other pollution mitigation strategies, provide shoreside electricity for docked vessels.About half the world’s population lives near coastlines where industrial pollution meets ocean air, Roberts says, so nitryl chloride could play a major role in air quality worldwide. The same reaction likely occurs inland, where chloride-containing aerosols drive the chemical reaction. Inland sources of chloride include natural soil salts such as calcium chloride and de-icing compounds spread on winter roads.“We don’t know how widespread nitryl chloride is as a source of ozone pollution,” says Roberts. The health consequences of nitryl chloride itself are unknown. As for ozone, an April 2008 report by the National Research Council, Estimating Mortality Risk Reduction and Economic Benefits from Controlling Ozone Air Pollution, links even short-term exposure with premature death.“This is the first field measurement of nitryl chloride, and it’s very exciting,” says Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Experiments in her laboratory 20 years ago first showed that mixing sodium chloride with dinitrogen pentoxide in the dark generated nitryl chloride. “The data will be extremely useful for further development and application of air quality models for coastal urban areas,” she says.The NOx in ship exhaust combines with chloride in sea mist to produce a potent ozone precursorFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Jiang J and Li D (2016) Theoretical analysis and experimental confirmation of exhaust temperature control for diesel vehicle NOx emissions reduction, Applied Energy, 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.04.096, 174, (232-244), Online publication date: 1-Jul-2016. Fleer M and Verkuijl B (2014) Optimization of the use of a chiral bio-based building block for the manufacture of DHPPA, a key intermediate for propionate herbicides, Green Chemistry, 10.1039/C4GC00797B, 16:8, (3993) Vol. 116, No. 7 July 2008Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 July 2008Published in print1 July 2008 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. 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Ports in a Storm

In many parts of the world, shipping-related emissions have already exceeded or are expected to soon exceed those from land-based sources. Shipping emissions can be reduced substantially by using some of the same technologies being applied to land-based sources, including cleaner engines and fuels, exhaust control methods, and operational modifications. Various ports are testing the feasibility of these mechanisms with varying degrees of success. What is perhaps most greatly needed is expedited creation of better regulations at all levels, from the International Maritime Organization to port city authorities.