Experimental studies on particle emissions from cruising ship, their characteristic properties, transformation and atmospheric lifetime in the marine boundary layer

Abstract

Abstract. Particle emissions from ship engines and their atmospheric transformation in the marine boundary layer (MBL) were investigated in engine test bed studies and in airborne measurements of expanding ship plumes. During the test rig studies, detailed aerosol microphysical and chemical properties were measured in the exhaust gas of a serial MAN B&W seven-cylinder four-stroke marine diesel engine under various load conditions. The emission studies were complemented by airborne aerosol transformation studies in the plume of a large container ship in the English Channel using the DLR aircraft Falcon 20 E-5. Observations from emission studies and plume studies combined with a Gaussian plume dispersion model yield a consistent picture of particle transformation processes from emission to atmospheric processing during plume expansion. Particulate matter emission indices obtained from plume measurements are 8.8±1.0×10 15 (kg fuel) −1 by number for non-volatile particles and 174±43 mg (kg fuel) −1 by mass for Black Carbon (BC). Values determined for test rig conditions between 85 and 110% engine load are of similar magnitude. For the total particle number including volatile compounds no emission index can be derived since the volatile aerosol fraction is subject to rapid transformation processes in the plume. Ship exhaust particles occur in the size range D p <0.3 µm, showing a bi-modal structure. The combustion particle mode is centred at modal diameters of 0.05 µm for raw emissions to 0.10 µm at a plume age of 1 h. The smaller-sized volatile particle mode is centred at D p ≤0.02 µm. From the decay of Correspondence to: A. Petzold (andreas.petzold@dlr.de) ship exhaust particle number concentrations in an expanding plume, a maximum plume life time of approx. 24 h is estimated for a well-mixed marine boundary layer.

Source apportionment of PM&lt;sub&gt;2.5&lt;/sub&gt; in Cork Harbour, Ireland using a combination of single particle mass spectrometry and quantitative semi-continuous measurements

“…Although the relative contribution of shipping to ambient PM 2.5 is lower in our case, freshly emitted ship exhaust particle numbers reside predominantly in the ultrafine mode (Fridell et al, 2008;Healy et al, 2009;Ault et al, 2010), and epidemiological research suggests that fine or ultrafine particle number concentrations may represent a more accurate metric than PM 2.5 mass concentrations when estimating the health impacts of anthropogenic particulate sources (Ibald-Mulli et al, 2002;Kreyling et al, 2006;Hoek et al, 2010). Several recent articles have focused on estimating the regional and global impact of emissions from shipping (Eyring et al, 2007;Petzold et al, 2008;Jalkanen et al, 2009;Marmer et al, 2009;Viana et al, 2009;Pey et al, 2010), highlighting the need for corresponding source apportionment of PM in locations impacted by this source. Thus, knowledge of the relative contribution of fresh ship exhaust particles of unregulated composition to air quality in a port environment is of particular importance considering the growth of shipping activity worldwide, and the expected resultant effect on human health (Winebrake et al, 2009;Dalsøren et al, 2010).…”

Field test of available methods to measure remotely SO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; and NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emissions from ships

“…Previous stack emission measurements were reported in several studies (e.g. Petzold et al, 2008;Moldanová et al, 2009).…”

Real-case simulations of aerosol–cloud interactions in ship tracks over the Bay of Biscay

“…While all observations shown in Fig. 3 display a single peak, measurements of double-peak structures have been obtained in test bed studies (Petzold et al, 2008). In terms of N a , smaller peak perturbations are simulated in ship10A than observed, as the aged emission size distribution was developed to represent older plume segments, which consequentially are more diluted.…”

“…3 blue markers) and Petzold et al (2008) (Fig. 3 orange markers), while peak amplitudes are underestimated with respect to the observations in ship and ship10A.…”