Air Quality Monitoring in Ports

Ships plying in European waters in 2000 released 3.6 million tons of NOx and 2.6 million tons of SO2. If left unchecked, emissions will rise by 10-30 percent during the next decade, which means that by 2010, ship emissions could be equivalent to more than three-quarters of the EU total for SO2 from land-based sources, and about two-thirds of that total for NOx.
Fishing vessels are responsible for very little (no more than 2 percent) of total pollutant emissions from ships, while ferries account for 11-12 percent. The remaining 86 percent or so comes mainly from cargo vessels.
About 95 percent of all emissions take place at sea, and 5 percent occur while ships are in or near port.
Some 40 percent of all the estimated maritime releases of air pollutants occur from ships moving between ports in the EU. About an equal amount comes from ships either leaving or arriving in EU ports, while 12 percent comes from ships traveling either to or from ports in EU candidate countries. The remaining 7 percent comes from ships passing through European waters, but not entering either EU ports or candidate-countries' ports ship emissions (SE) have significant impact on air quality (AQ) when a port is near or even a part of a city. There is clear evidence that European authorities will soon decide about new legislation with respect to SE [Green Book “Ocean Politics”, EC, 2006].

the prototyp could be the Weser-Jade-Port whose completion is envisaged for 2010

This projects aims to develop instrumentation and methods to monitor air quality in port areas using MAXDOAS type instrumentation responding to the statements in EC's Green Book: “Appropriate incentive mechanisms should be promoted for ship-owners with a good track record, for example by offering lower costs in ports and fewer security checks.” Such incentive mechanisms can only be set up if the amount of air pollution can be quantified.
This proposed project should show the feasibility of monitoring tropospheric air pollutants in port areas using remote sensing from ground (MAXDOAS) at high quality. Envisaged target air pollutants are CH4, NO2 (NOx?), SO2, CO and potentially particulate matter (PM).
One spatially scanning MAXDOAS spectrometer will be placed at optimum position in the port (see above for potential measurement site). Routine measurements and near real time trace gas retrieval and data upload to a webportal are planned. A potential site for installing and testing the prototyp could be the Weser-Jade-Port whose completion is envisaged for 2010.

For more information:

Green Book: “Towards a future Maritime Policy for the Union: A European vision for the oceans and seas”, EC- SEC(2006) 689, Volume II- Annex, European Commission, June 2006.