Monitoring the compliance of sailing ships with fuel sulfur content regulations using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measurements of ship emissions in open water
<p>Due to technical and cost limitations, the monitoring of emissions from ships sailing in open water within ship emission control areas (ECAs) is relatively rare. The present study adopts a monitoring method involving an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that takes off from a patrol boat to meas...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques |
| Online Access: | https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/13/4899/2020/amt-13-4899-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Due to technical and cost limitations, the monitoring of
emissions from ships sailing in open water within ship emission control
areas (ECAs) is relatively rare. The present study adopts a monitoring
method involving an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that takes off from a
patrol boat to measure the concentrations of <span class="inline-formula">SO<sub>2</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> within
the plumes of sailing ships. Our method aims to provide a low-cost, remote
approach for estimating the fuel sulfur content (FSC) of sailing ships in
open water, which overcomes the limitations of ground-based and small-aircraft-based methods. The selected monitoring area was the Yangtze River
estuary, a domestic ECA with an FSC limit of 0.5 % (<span class="inline-formula"><i>m</i>∕<i>m</i></span>) implemented by
the Chinese government. A total of 27 sailing ships were monitored, 12 of
which were found to have an FSC of <span class="inline-formula">>0.5</span> % (<span class="inline-formula"><i>m</i>∕<i>m</i></span>). Moreover, the
FSCs of the sailing ships were found to be higher than those of berthing
ships in the study area. Based upon the online monitoring results, four of
the monitored ships were intercepted by maritime law enforcement, and
fuel samples were collected and analyzed in a laboratory; the results
confirmed that all four FSCs were <span class="inline-formula">>0.5</span> % (<span class="inline-formula"><i>m</i>∕<i>m</i></span>). Among them,
one offending ship was tracked down on 15 July 2019; this was the first
time that a sailing ship had been caught for having failed the FSC
regulations in China. Overall, the present study provides scientific support
for evaluating the effectiveness of ECA policies and recommends that
emissions from sailing ships be monitored more often in open
water in the future.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1867-1381 1867-8548 |