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In order to meet stringent fuel sulfur limits, ships are increasingly utilizing new fuels or, alternatively, scrubbers to reduce sulfur emissions from the combustion of sulfur-rich heavy fuel oil. The effects of these methods on particle emissions are important, because particle emissions from shipping traffic are known to have both climatic and health effects. In this study, the effects of lower sulfur level liquid fuels, natural gas (NG), and exhaust scrubbers on particulate mass (PM) and nonvolatile particle number (PN greater than 23 nm) emissions were studied by measurements in laboratory tests and in use. The fuel change to lower sulfur level fuels or to NG and the use of scrubbers significantly decreased the PM emissions. However, this was not directly linked with nonvolatile PN emission reduction, which should be taken into consideration when discussing the health effects of emitted particles. The lowest PM and PN emissions were measured when utilizing NG as fuel, indicating that the use of NG could be one way to comply with up-coming regulations for inland waterway vessels. Low PN levels were associated with low elemental carbon. However, a simultaneously observed methane slip should be taken into consideration when evaluating the climatic impacts of NG-fueled engines.

This study presents emission results measured with renewable and synthetic diesel fuels. Three engines and five city buses were studied. The efficiency of diesel oxidation catalyst combined to particle oxidation catalyst (POC®) was measured with two engines. The studied diesel fuels were EN590, FAME, HVO and GTL. In most cases all regulated emissions decreased with HVO and GTL fuels compared to conventional EN590 diesel fuel. With FAME, the NO x emissions were higher compared to EN590, but other emissions were reduced. Alternative fuels had a positive effect on emissions, which are considered harmful to human health.

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Particle emissions from marine traffic affect significantly air quality in coastal areas and the climate. The particle emissions were studied from a 1.4 MW marine engine operating on low-sulfur fuels natural gas (NG; dual-fuel with diesel pilot), marine gas oil (MGO) and marine diesel oil (MDO). The emitted particles were characterized with respect to particle number (PN) emission factors, PN size distribution down to nanometer scale (1.2–414 nm), volatility, electric charge, morphology, and elemental composition. The size distribution of fresh exhaust particles was bimodal for all the fuels, the nucleation mode highly dominating the soot mode. Total PN emission factors were 2.7 × 1015–7.1 × 1015 #/kWh, the emission being the lowest with NG and the highest with MDO. Liquid fuel combustion generated 4–12 times higher soot mode particle emissions than the NG combustion, and the harbor-area-typical lower engine load (40%) caused higher total PN emissions than the higher load (85%). Nonvolatile particles consisted of nanosized fuel, and spherical lubricating oil core mode particles contained, e.g., calcium as well as agglomerated soot mode particles. Our results indicate the PN emissions from marine engines may remain relatively high regardless of fuel sulfur limits, mostly due to the nanosized particle emissions.