MARPOL Compliance Solutions. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, a journal published by the European Geosciences Union, in a white discussing shipping emissions in the North Sea, points out that the impact goes far beyond the shores.
The North Sea is one of the areas with the highest ship traffic densities in our planet. “At any time, about 3000 ships are sailing its waterways” a factor that contributes “significantly to atmospheric concentrations of NOx, particulate matter and ozone. Especially in the case of particulate matter and ozone this influence can even be seen in regions far away from the main shipping routes”.
The authors use a new model that allows quantification the “effects of North Sea shipping on air quality in its bordering states”. The emissions model yielded ship emissions among others of NOx and SO2 in high temporal and spatial resolution that were subsequently used in a chemistry transport model in order to simulate the impact of the emissions on pollutant concentration levels. “The total emissions of nitrogen reached 540 Gg and of sulfur oxides 123 Gg within the North Sea, which was about twice as much of those of a medium-sized industrialized European state like the Netherlands:.
The relative contribution of ships to, for example, NO2 concentration levels ashore close to the sea can reach up to 25% in summer and 15% in winter. Some hundred kilometers away from the sea the contribution was about 6% in summer and 4% in winter
The North Sea has been designated as an ECA, Emissions Control Areas, MARPOL and under stringent new regulations implemented on January 1, 2015 shipowners who burn sulphur content in excess of 1.5% m/m face substantial fines and penalties, unless fitted with an “Exhaust Gas Cleaning system or other technological method”, according to ECM Europe.
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