Vessel Emissions Research Articles

Reduction of CO2 emissions with automatic mooring systems. The case of the port of Santander

The revolutions in the maritime industry resulting from the implementation of integrated transport systems (bulk) and containerization (regular lines) at first had little effect on traditional mooring systems for ships in port. However, the research into innovation in automated mooring systems with increasingly advanced technologies carried on regardless.The so-called “Automatic Mooring Systems” (AMS), automatic systems that allow vessels to be moored without ropes, are being increasingly implemented in numerous ports in many different countries in the world, particularly in those whose traffic volumes have allowed the threshold of profitability of these infrastructures to be reached. But besides the financial benefits, the implantation of the AMS is having positive effects on the environment by reducing CO2 emissions in many commercial ports.The present work aims to measure for the first time the reduction in the CO2 emissions of merchant vessels as a consequence of the substitution of traditional mooring systems with the new automatic systems, continuing along the lines of previous works in the field of the reduction in CO2 emissions in ports.The estimation is made by applying the EPA and ENTEC “bottom-up” methodologies to the traffic in the port of Santander (Spain) in the year 2014.The implementation of the AMS, when compared to the traditional mooring systems, leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 76.78% calculated using the EPA method and 76.63% using the ENTEC method. Hence, the Port Authorities in their long-term planning decisions should promote the introduction of automatic mooring systems wherever the profitability thresholds of traffic allow it, as this will lead to significant environmental benefits by substantially reducing CO2 emissions during the maneuvers of merchant ships in maritime commercial ports.

Inland port vessel emissions inventory based on Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model–Automatic Identification System

The designation of ship emission control areas in China evidenced increased attention to ship emissions. Ships calling ports along inland waterways are of particular concern as their emissions exacerbate air pollution in nearby cities. Adapting the Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model to the local context, this study combines data from Automatic Identification System, vessel profile database, and field investigation results to build a “bottom-up” activity-based inventory of ship emissions. The Nanjing Longtan Container Port was taken as a case study. Results show that total ship emissions for PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOx, CO, HC, and CO2 in 2014 are 3.45, 2.76, 196.00, 2.90, 20.62, 8.13, and 12,554.29 t, respectively. Accordingly, ship emission reduction measures were proposed based on the analysis of emission characteristics. The methods and conclusions of the study provide a scientific basis for the inventory and control of the ship emissions in China.

Air Quality Impacts of Electrifying Vehicles and Equipment Across the United States.

U.S.-wide air quality impacts of electrifying vehicles and off-road equipment are estimated for 2030 using 3-D photochemical air quality model and detailed emissions inventories. Electrification reduces tailpipe emissions and emissions from petroleum refining, transport, and storage, but increases electricity demand. The Electrification Case assumes approximately 17% of light duty and 8% of heavy duty vehicle miles traveled and from 17% to 79% of various off-road equipment types considered good candidates for electrification is powered by electricity. The Electrification Case raises electricity demand by 5% over the 2030 Base Case but nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions decrease by 209 thousand tons (3%) overall. Emissions of other criteria pollutants also decrease. Air quality benefits of electrification are modest, mostly less than 1 ppb for ozone and 0.5 μg m-3 for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), but widespread. The largest reductions for ozone and PM occur in urban areas due to lower mobile source emissions. Electrifying off-road equipment yields more benefits than electrifying on-road vehicles. Reduced crude oil imports and associated marine vessel emissions cause additional benefits in port cities. Changes in other gas and PM emissions, as well as impacts on acid and nutrient deposition, are discussed.

External costs from vessel emissions at port: a review of the methodological and empirical state of the art

ABSTRACTThe accurate calculation of external costs from vessel emissions and shipping (as it happens with transport) strongly depends on parameters such as location, the time of the day and vessel operative. Thus, the use of a full bottom-up approach and granular traffic details is suggested. The latter may represent a substantial improvement in the resolution of shipping activity, energy demand, emissions and cost data being the latter essential for better regulations. The revised work identifies the Impact Pathway Approach (IPA) as the best-practice bottom-up methodology for calculating site-specific external costs derived from shipping air emissions. It has been widely adopted, among others, over major European studies (CAFE, BeTa, NEEDS and HEATCO). Also, it shows that due to costly and complex requirements of creating a shipping and harbour-specific bottom-up approach, external cost calculation based on tonne per euro factors obtained from European Studies (top-down approach) has been widely accepted. Moreover, methodological improvements and the possible achievement of refined estimations (IPA) dedicated to ports and shipping are strongly suggested, as these may improve information quality used for environmental policy and measures that contribute to the internalisation of externality costs.

The green vessel scheduling problem with transit time requirements in a liner shipping route with Emission Control Areas

Increasing volumes of the international seaborne trade and new regulations on vessel emissions require liner shipping companies to enhance efficiency of their operations to remain competitive and in the meantime comply with the established restrictions on emissions that are produced by vessels. This paper presents a novel mixed integer nonlinear mathematical programming model for the green vessel scheduling problem with transit time requirements in a liner shipping route with “Emission Control Areas”, which not only enforces constraints on the quantity of emissions that are produced by vessels within “Emission Control Areas”, but also captures the cargo transit time requirements. The model’s objective aims to minimize the overall route service cost. A number of linearization techniques are proposed for linearizing the original nonlinear problem. The dynamic secant approximation procedure is used to solve the linearized problem. A set of numerical experiments are performed to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed solution approach and assess the effect of introducing both emission constraints and cargo transit time requirements on design of vessel schedules.

The waterway ship scheduling problem

One of the most important issues in port connectivity refers to the availability of accessible waterways and their traffic management. This puts a lot of pressure especially into capacity restricted transport corridors, where their inefficient use may not only result in a loss of the port competitiveness but also in an increase of the volume of ship emissions polluting the environment. In this context, the Waterway Ship Scheduling Problem is proposed; its goal is to schedule incoming and outgoing ships through different waterways for accessing or leaving the port in such a way that the ships’ waiting time is minimized. This objective allows, on the one hand, to avoid bottlenecks or congestions through scheduling the waterway traffic, and on the other hand, reduce vessel emissions while they are waiting at the anchorage either for entering or leaving. A mathematical model and heuristics are proposed. Real scenarios based on the Yangtze Delta (Shanghai) are tackled for assessing the performance of the heuristic and the improvement upon real-world terminal operations.

Potential sources of nitrous acid (HONO) and their impacts on ozone: A WRF‐Chem study in a polluted subtropical region

AbstractCurrent chemical transport models commonly undersimulate the atmospheric concentration of nitrous acid (HONO), which plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry, due to the lack or inappropriate representations of some sources in the models. In the present study, we parameterized up‐to‐date HONO sources into a state‐of‐the‐art three‐dimensional chemical transport model (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry: WRF‐Chem). These sources included (1) heterogeneous reactions on ground surfaces with the photoenhanced effect on HONO production, (2) photoenhanced reactions on aerosol surfaces, (3) direct vehicle and vessel emissions, (4) potential conversion of NO2 at the ocean surface, and (5) emissions from soil bacteria. The revised WRF‐Chem was applied to explore the sources of the high HONO concentrations (0.45–2.71 ppb) observed at a suburban site located within complex land types (with artificial land covers, ocean, and forests) in Hong Kong. With the addition of these sources, the revised model substantially reproduced the observed HONO levels. The heterogeneous conversions of NO2 on ground surfaces dominated HONO sources contributing about 42% to the observed HONO mixing ratios, with emissions from soil bacterial contributing around 29%, followed by the oceanic source (~9%), photochemical formation via NO and OH (~6%), conversion on aerosol surfaces (~3%), and traffic emissions (~2%). The results suggest that HONO sources in suburban areas could be more complex and diverse than those in urban or rural areas and that the bacterial and/or ocean processes need to be considered in HONO production in forested and/or coastal areas. Sensitivity tests showed that the simulated HONO was sensitive to the uptake coefficient of NO2 on the surfaces. Incorporation of the aforementioned HONO sources significantly improved the simulations of ozone, resulting in increases of ground‐level ozone concentrations by 6–12% over urban areas in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region. This result highlights the importance of accurately representing HONO sources in simulations of secondary pollutants over polluted regions.

Emissions and climate forcing from global and Arctic fishing vessels

AbstractFishing vessels were recently found to be the largest source of black carbon ship emissions in the Arctic, suggesting that the fishing sector should be a focus for future studies. Here we developed a global and Arctic emissions inventory for fishing vessel emissions of short‐lived and long‐lived climate forcers based on data from a wide range of vessel sizes, fuel sulfur contents, engine types, and operational characteristics. We found that previous work generally underestimated emissions of short‐lived climate forcers due to a failure to account for small fishing vessels as well as variability in emission factors. In particular, global black carbon emissions were underestimated by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, our order of magnitude estimate of the net climate effect from these fishing vessel emissions suggests that short‐lived climate forcing may be particularly important in regions where fuel has a low sulfur content. These results have implications for proposed maritime policies and provide a foundation for future climate simulations to forecast climate change impacts in the Arctic.

Modeling the Impacts of Tides and the Virtual Arrival Policy in Berth Allocation

To quantify the impacts of tides on seaside operations in container ports, this study reformulates the berth allocation problem by modeling their impacts on the entrance/exit of vessels into/from ports. Furthermore, to mitigate the tidal impacts, we borrow the so-called virtual arrival policy, whose potential for reducing bunker fuel consumption and vessel emissions is widely recognized by the shipping industry, and accordingly retrofit the berth allocation model. In the latter model, the state-of-the-art technique of second-order cone programming is adopted to handle the nonlinear intractability involved. We conduct extensive numerical experiments to evaluate the impacts of tides on the seaside operations in a tidal container port, and also to verify the competence of the virtual arrival policy in delivering win–win economic and environmental benefits for both the port and shipping lines. It is also intriguing to observe that the virtual arrival policy would be an applicable substitute for the costly approach of deepening the navigation channel in a tidal port.

Maritime shipping and emissions: A three-layered, damage-based approach

Policy emphasis in ship design must be shifted away from global and idealized towards regional based and realistic vessel operating conditions. The present approach to reducing shipping emissions through technical standards tends to neglect how damages and abatement opportunities vary according to location and operational conditions. Since environmental policy originates in damages relating to ecosystems and jurisdictions, a three-layered approach to vessel emissions is intuitive and practical. Here, we suggest associating damages and policies with ports, coastal areas possibly defined as Emission Control Areas (ECA) as in the North Sea and the Baltic, and open seas globally. This approach offers important practical opportunities: in ports, clean fuels or even electrification is possible; in ECAs, cleaner fuels and penalties for damaging fuels are important, but so is vessel handling, such as speeds and utilization. Globally we argue that it may be desirable to allow burning very dirty fuels at high seas, due to the cost advantages, the climate cooling benefits, and the limited ecosystem impacts. We quantify the benefits and cost savings from reforming current IMO and other approaches towards environmental management with a three-layered approach, and argue it is feasible and worth considering.

Environmental cost and eco-efficiency from vessel emissions in Las Palmas Port

This study presents external costs and eco-efficiency parameters associated to exhaust emissions in Las Palmas Port. Emission assessment is based on a vessel emissions inventory obtained from the full bottom-up Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model and messages transmitted by the Automatic Identification System over 2011. External costs are estimated based on a top-down approach. Results are combined with port operations profiles resulting in eco-efficiency performance towards economic and environmental concerns in Las Palmas Port. Results could also support the valuation of instruments to abate emissions in crowded port-cities that as Las Palmas, host a large population of residents and visitors.

Overview and comparative analysis of emission calculators for inland shipping

ABSTRACTCalculating emissions of inland shipping is an emerging topic in related transport sustainability assessment and monitoring. Despite being a niche transportation mode, inland shipping plays a significant role in specific regions, especially in Western and Central Europe. Estimating its sustainability performance with the aim of achieving a balanced and greener transportation system has become critical to properly manage it on operational and strategic levels, in part also due to its decreasing environmental competitiveness. Using systematic identification and evaluation tools, estimating trip-specific emissions of inland vessels were investigated. The three calculators chosen and considered as critical representative cases of trip-specific tools: VNF Ecocalculator, Artemis, and EcoTransIT. Their estimation capabilities and functionality were comparatively analyzed by using a sample transportation scenario and a set of 10 evaluation criteria to give insight into their estimation behavior and relevance for transport mode-related decision making.

An AIS-based approach to calculate atmospheric emissions from the UK fishing fleet

The fishing industry is heavily reliant on the use of fossil fuel and emits large quantities of greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants. Methods used to calculate fishing vessel emissions inventories have traditionally utilised estimates of fuel efficiency per unit of catch. These methods have weaknesses because they do not easily allow temporal and geographical allocation of emissions. A large proportion of fishing and other small commercial vessels are also omitted from global shipping emissions inventories such as the International Maritime Organisation's Greenhouse Gas Studies. This paper demonstrates an activity-based methodology for the production of temporally- and spatially-resolved emissions inventories using data produced by Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). The methodology addresses the issue of how to use AIS data for fleets where not all vessels use AIS technology and how to assign engine load when vessels are towing trawling or dredging gear. The results of this are compared to a fuel-based methodology using publicly available European Commission fisheries data on fuel efficiency and annual catch. The results show relatively good agreement between the two methodologies, with an estimate of 295.7 kilotons of fuel used and 914.4 kilotons of carbon dioxide emitted between May 2012 and May 2013 using the activity-based methodology. Different methods of calculating speed using AIS data are also compared. The results indicate that using the speed data contained directly in the AIS data is preferable to calculating speed from the distance and time interval between consecutive AIS data points.

Sulfur Dioxide Emission Estimates from Merchant Vessels in a Port Area and Related Control Strategies

ABSTRACTWhile maritime shipping is currently the most reliable form of cargo transport for global trade, it causes significant air pollution. The number of inbound and outbound vessels in the Port of Kaohsiung, as well as the cargo throughput, is the highest in Taiwan. These vessels emit considerable amounts of air pollutants. Two methods based on vessel activity intensity were adopted in this study to estimate the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) generated by the consumption of fuel oils by merchant vessels in the Port of Kaohsiung from 2006 to 2010. Emissions were estimated to be 3,229–3,889 tonnes and 1,395–1,777 tonnes using a method based on cargo capacity and vessel engine activity time, respectively. These estimates are equivalent to 3.7% to 4.5% of the overall SO2 emissions in Kaohsiung City. The difference between these estimates was due to varying parameters being adopted for each method, such as cargo throughput capacity, vessel power and the emission correction factor related to fuel oils. The SO2 emissions of merchant vessels can be mitigated with the use of an incentive discount system. It is also estimated that when the shore power facilities in the Port of Kaohsiung are used to reduce emissions during vessel hotelling, the additional power requirement would be 6.6% of the overall power consumption of Kaohsiung City for the year 2010.

The role of sea ports in end-to-end maritime transport chain emissions

This paper's purpose is to investigate the role of sea ports in helping to mitigate the GHG emissions associated with the end-to-end maritime transport chain. The analysis is primarily focused on the UK, but is international in application. The paper is based on both the analysis of secondary data and information on actions taken by ports to reduce their emissions, with the latter data collected for the main UK ports via their published reports and/or via interviews. Only a small number of ports (representing 32% of UK port activity) actually measure and report their carbon emissions in the UK context. The emissions generated by ships calling at these ports are analysed using a method based on Department for Transport Maritime Statistics Data. In addition, a case example (Felixstowe) of emissions associated with HGV movements to and from ports is presented, and data on vessel emissions at berth are also considered.Our analyses indicate that emissions generated by ships during their voyages between ports are of a far greater magnitude than those generated by the port activities. Thus while reducing the ports' own emissions is worthwhile, the results suggest that ports might have more impact through focusing their efforts on reducing shipping emissions.

Mathematical modeling of seasonal variations in visibility in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region

Seasonal variations in light extinction over Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in China in January, April, July and October of 2006 were studied using the MM5–CMAQ modeling system. A local empirical visibility regression formula, based on that used in the IMPROVE project (Malm et al., 1994), was introduced to examine the relationship between the predicted aerosol mass concentration and light extinction over the PRD region. The modeling system was able to reproduce the seasonal variations in sulfate, elementary carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC) and PM2.5 mass concentrations, but not aerosol nitrate. Compared to the IMPROVE formula, the local regression formula produced a more accurate prediction of the variation in seasonal light extinction over the inland PRD region, with a 13–27% improvement in model performance according to the normalized mean bias. The seasonal light extinction budget analysis suggested that hydrophilic sulfate, EC, and aged OC are the major contributors to regional visibility degradation over Hong Kong and the PRD. An emission reduction case study also suggested the importance of controlling vehicle and marine vessel emissions to improve regional visibility.

The 2010 California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) field study

AbstractThe California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) field study was conducted throughout California in May, June, and July of 2010. The study was organized to address issues simultaneously relevant to atmospheric pollution and climate change, including (1) emission inventory assessment, (2) atmospheric transport and dispersion, (3) atmospheric chemical processing, and (4) cloud‐aerosol interactions and aerosol radiative effects. Measurements from networks of ground sites, a research ship, tall towers, balloon‐borne ozonesondes, multiple aircraft, and satellites provided in situ and remotely sensed data on trace pollutant and greenhouse gas concentrations, aerosol chemical composition and microphysical properties, cloud microphysics, and meteorological parameters. This overview report provides operational information for the variety of sites, platforms, and measurements, their joint deployment strategy, and summarizes findings that have resulted from the collaborative analyses of the CalNex field study. Climate‐relevant findings from CalNex include that leakage from natural gas infrastructure may account for the excess of observed methane over emission estimates in Los Angeles. Air‐quality relevant findings include the following: mobile fleet VOC significantly declines, and NOx emissions continue to have an impact on ozone in the Los Angeles basin; the relative contributions of diesel and gasoline emission to secondary organic aerosol are not fully understood; and nighttime NO3 chemistry contributes significantly to secondary organic aerosol mass in the San Joaquin Valley. Findings simultaneously relevant to climate and air quality include the following: marine vessel emissions changes due to fuel sulfur and speed controls result in a net warming effect but have substantial positive impacts on local air quality.

Investigation of gaseous and particulate emissions from various marine vessel types measured on the banks of the Elbe in Northern Germany

Abstract. Measurements of the ambient aerosol, various trace gases and meteorological quantities using a mobile laboratory (MoLa) were performed on the banks of the Lower Elbe in an emission control area (ECA) which is passed by numerous private and commercial marine vessels reaching and leaving the port of Hamburg, Germany. From 25–29 April 2011 a total of 178 vessels were probed at a distance of about 0.8–1.2 km with high temporal resolution. 139 ship emission plumes were of sufficient quality to be analyzed further and to determine emission factors (EFs). Concentrations of aerosol number and mass as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and black carbon were measured in PM1 and size distribution instruments covered the diameter range from 6 nm up to 32 μm. The chemical composition of the non-refractory submicron aerosol was measured by means of an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (Aerodyne HR-ToF-AMS). Gas phase species analyzers monitored various trace gases (O3, SO2, NO, NO2, CO2) in the air and a weather station provided wind, precipitation, solar radiation data and other quantities. Together with ship information for each vessel obtained from Automatic Identification System (AIS) broadcasts a detailed characterization of the individual ship types and of features affecting gas and particulate emissions is provided. Particle number EFs (average 2.6e+16 # kg−1) and PM1 mass EFs (average 2.4 g kg−1) tend to increase with the fuel sulfur content. Observed PM1 composition of the vessel emissions was dominated by organic matter (72%), sulfate (22%) and black carbon (6%) while PAHs only account for 0.2% of the submicron aerosol mass. Measurements of gaseous components showed an increase of SO2 (average EF: 7.7 g kg−1) and NOx (average EF: 53 g kg−1) while O3 decreased when a ship plume reached the sampling site. The particle number size distributions of the vessels are generally characterized by a bimodal size distribution, with the nucleation mode in the 10–20 nm diameter range and a combustion aerosol mode centered at about 35 nm while particles \\textgreater 1 μm were not found. "High particle number emitters" are characterized by a dominant nucleation mode. By contrast, increased particle concentrations around 150 nm primarily occurred for "high black carbon emitters". Classifying the vessels according to their gross tonnage shows a decrease of the number, black carbon and PAH EFs while EFs of SO2, NO, NO2, NOx, AMS species (particulate organics, sulfate) and PM1 mass concentration increase with increasing gross tonnages.

Planning vessel air emission regulations compliance under uncertainty

In this paper we consider the reduction of air emissions from vessels when uncertainty is taken into account. Uncertainty in the reduction effects of the different existing air emission controls is currently high and makes their selection for vessel emission regulations compliance a challenging process. We develop a two-stage stochastic optimization model that addresses this uncertainty. The model’s objective is to plan the installation of air emission controls over a specified time horizon for a vessel to comply in the most cost-efficient way with the air emission regulations. The uncertain reduction effects of the controls are modelled by a set of scenarios. The approach is applied to a case study with real data. The solution exposes the important impact of uncertainty on this problem, especially on the SO X reduction, while the CO2 reduction plan seems in this case not affected by uncertainty.

A regional assessment of marine vessel PM2.5 impacts in the U.S. Pacific Northwest using a receptor-based source apportionment method

This work reports results from a receptor-based source apportionment analysis using the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model on chemically speciated PM2.5 data from 36 urban and rural monitoring sites within the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The approach taken is to model each site independently, treats monitor datasets with a common data preparation protocol, and uses a common modeling protocol. Complementary data from two monitoring networks, the urban Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and rural Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) Network, was modeled for the period of 2007–2011. 15 different factor types were found for CSN sites and 17 for IMPROVE sites, however many factors occurred at only a few locations. Only 3 factor types were common in both networks: sulfate/sulfur rich, nitrate rich, and soil. However, for coastal and near coastal monitoring sites there were three additional factors common in both networks: sea salt, aged sea salt, and residual fuel oil combustion (RFO). This work presents annual average PM2.5 mass impacts for all sites and factors found and the results for RFO are explored in greater depth. The association between RFO results and commercial marine vessel emissions is made based on similarities between factor chemical profiles and published emissions profiles, comparisons with emissions inventories, and the similarity in the spatial extent of RFO factor locations to that of the other marine aerosols identified in this study, sea salt and aged sea salt. All 14 monitoring sites with marine vessel RFO factors showed a seasonal cycle of mass impacts, with lower impacts in winter months (monthly average PM2.5 between 0.1 μg m−3 and 0.9 μg m−3 in January) and higher impacts in summer months (monthly average PM2.5 between 0.3 μg m−3 and 2.7 μg m−3 in August). These results set a baseline to measure progress in emissions reductions that are expected from implementation of the North American Emissions Control Area (ECA) beginning in August 2012.