Monitoring the compliance of sailing ships with fuel sulfur content regulations using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measurements of ship emissions in open water

Zhou, Fan; Hou, Liwei; Zhong, Rui; Chen, Wei; Ni, Xunpeng; Pan, Shengda; Zhao, Ming; An, Bowen

doi:10.5194/amt-13-4899-2020

Cited by 29 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The SPMS instrument was manufactured by Hexin Instruments Ltd., Guangzhou, China, and Photonion GmbH, Schwerin, Germany (Li et al, 2011;Zhou et al, 2016). It consists of a dual-polarity mass spectrometer in Z-TOF geometry (Pratt et al, 2009), an aerodynamic lens inlet and 75 mW continuous-wave lasers (wavelength λ = 532 nm), ellipsoidal mirrors and photomultipliers for particle detection and sizing.…”

Section: Single-particle Mass Spectrometer and Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of ship plumes from residual fuel operation in emission control areas using single-particle mass spectrometry

et al. 2021

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Abstract. Ships are among the main contributors to global air pollution, with substantial impacts on climate and public health. To improve air quality in densely populated coastal areas and to protect sensitive ecosystems, sulfur emission control areas (SECAs) were established in many regions of the world. Ships in SECAs operate with low-sulfur fuels, typically distillate fractions such as marine gas oil (MGO). Alternatively, exhaust gas-cleaning devices (“scrubbers”) can be implemented to remove SO2 from the exhaust, thus allowing the use of cheap high-sulfur residual fuels. Compliance monitoring is established in harbors but is difficult in open water because of high costs and technical limitations. Here we present the first experiments to detect individual ship plumes from distances of several kilometers by single-particle mass spectrometry (SPMS). In contrast to most monitoring approaches that evaluate the gaseous emissions, such as manned or unmanned surveillance flights, sniffer technologies and remote sensing, we analyze the metal content of individual particles which is conserved during atmospheric transport. We optimized SPMS technology for the evaluation of residual fuel emissions and demonstrate their detection in a SECA. Our experiments show that ships with installed scrubbers can emit PM emissions with health-relevant metals in quantities high enough to be detected from more than 10 km distance, emphasizing the importance of novel exhaust-cleaning technologies and cleaner fuels. Because of the unique and stable signatures, the method is not affected by urban background. With this study, we establish a route towards a novel monitoring protocol for ship emissions. Therefore, we present and discuss mass spectral signatures that indicate the particle age and thus the distance to the source. By matching ship transponder data, measured wind data and air mass back trajectories, we show how real-time SPMS data can be evaluated to assign distant ship passages.

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Section: Single-particle Mass Spectrometer and Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of ship plumes from residual fuel operation in emission control areas using single-particle mass spectrometry

et al. 2021

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“…To reduce air pollution caused by ship exhaust emissions, in December 2015, The Ministry of Transport (MOT) of China issued an Action Plan, which was used to control marine emissions in the Bohai-rim Waters, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta region [ 15 ]. For the purpose of reducing the emissions of SO 2 , NO x and PM from ships, on 10 December 2018, the MOT issued the “Implementation Scheme of the Domestic Emission Control Areas (DECAs)” for Atmospheric Pollution from Vessels [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Therefore, ship emission regulation has become an important work in daily law enforcement of the maritime system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ning et al [ 30 , 31 ] developed a practical alternative method to collect emissions and to determine FSC, using UAV aircraft equipped with compact air pollution-monitoring sensors to monitor ship exhaust emissions. Zhou et al [ 17 , 18 ] designed and developed a set of UAV systems to monitor the emissions of navigating ships and achieved good experimental results. Compared with aircraft, the method of using UAV to carry sniffing sensors to monitor tail gas has the advantages of small size, low cost and simple operation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Diffused Mini-Sniffing Sensor for Monitoring SO2 Emissions Compliance of Navigating Ships

Deng

Peng

Xie³

et al. 2022

Sensors

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The ship exhaust sniffing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system can be applied to monitor vessel emissions in emission control areas (ECAs) to improve the efficiency of maritime law enforcement and reduce ship pollution. To solve the problems of large size, heavy weight and high cost of ship exhaust sniffing sensors, in this paper, a unique diffused mini-sniffing sensor was designed, which provides a low-cost, lightweight, and highly adaptable solution for ship exhaust sniffing UAV. To verify the measurement accuracy of the system, a large number of on-site tests were performed based in the mouth of the Yangtze River, and some cases of violation of the fuel sulfur content (FSC) were verified and punished. Maritime law enforcement officers boarded the ship to take oil samples from eight suspected ships and sent them to the laboratory for testing. The results showed that the FSCs of the eight ships in chemical inspection were all greater than the regulatory limit 0.5% (m/m) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The system enables authorities to monitor emissions using rotary UAVs equipped with diffused mini-sniffing sensors to measure the FSC of navigating ships, which couple hardware and operational software with a dedicated lab service to produce highly reliable measurement results. The system offers an effective tool for screening vessel compliance.

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“…Plume analyses in 55 open water requires expensive surveillance flights (Beecken et al, 2014;Van Roy, W and Scheldeman, K., 2016). Unmanned aerial vehicles can reduce these costs but have limitations in cruising range and weather conditions (Zhou et al, 2020). Optical sensing technologies that have been utilized to monitor ship plumes on few-km distances comprise light detection and ranging (LIDAR), ultraviolet cameras and multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) (Balzani Lööv et al, 2014;Seyler et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Ship Plumes from Residual Fuel Operation in Emission Control Areas using Single-Particle Mass Spectrometry

Passig¹,

Schade²,

Irsig³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Ships are main contributors to global air pollution with substantial impacts on climate and public health. To improve air quality in densely populated coastal areas and to protect sensitive ecosystems, sulfur emission control areas (SECA) were established in many regions of the world. Ships in SECAs operate with low-sulfur fuels, typically distillate fractions such as marine gas oil (MGO). Alternatively, exhaust gas cleaning devices (scrubbers) can be implemented to remove SO2 from the exhaust, thus allowing the use of cheap high-sulfur residual fuels. Compliance monitoring is established in harbors, but difficult in open water because of high costs and technical limitations. Here we present the first experiments to detect individual ship plumes from distances of several kilometers by single-particle mass spectrometry (SPMS). In contrast to most monitoring approaches that evaluate the gaseous emissions, such as manned or unmanned surveillance flights, sniffer technologies and remote sensing, we analyze the chemical composition of the particulate phase that is transported by the wind over long distances. We optimized SPMS technology for the evaluation of residual fuel emissions and demonstrate their detection in a SECA. Our experiments show that ships with installed scrubbers can emit PM emissions with health-relevant metals in quantities high enough to be detected from more than 10 km distance, emphasizing the importance of novel exhaust cleaning technologies and cleaner fuels. Because of the unique and stable metal signatures, our method is not affected by urban background. With this study, we establish a route towards a novel monitoring protocol for ship emissions. Therefore, we present and discuss mass spectral signatures that indicate the particle age, and thus the distance to the source. By matching ship transponder data, measured wind data and air mass back trajectories, we show, how real-time SPMS data can be evaluated to assign distant ship passages.

show abstract

Monitoring the compliance of sailing ships with fuel sulfur content regulations using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measurements of ship emissions in open water

Cited by 29 publications

References 21 publications

Detection of ship plumes from residual fuel operation in emission control areas using single-particle mass spectrometry

Detection of ship plumes from residual fuel operation in emission control areas using single-particle mass spectrometry

A Diffused Mini-Sniffing Sensor for Monitoring SO2 Emissions Compliance of Navigating Ships

Detection of Ship Plumes from Residual Fuel Operation in Emission Control Areas using Single-Particle Mass Spectrometry

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