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Reanalysed Ship Emission Measurements

Air pollution from fossil fuel powered ocean-going vessels (OGVs) is responsible for various environmental and human health issues worldwide. Specifically for sulfur oxides (SOx), from 2010 onwards, stricter standards came into force regarding the maximum allowable fuel sulfur content (FSC) in marine fuels in the European Sulfur Emission Control Area (SECA). A method was developed for the airborne monitoring of OGVs to evaluate their compliance by equipping the Belgian coastguard aircraft with a sniffer sensor. The sensor allows a highly accurate FSC determination based on real-time CO2 and SO2 measurements in the smoke plume of OGVs.

In addition to the worldwide tightening of standards for sulphur emission from Ocean Going Vessels (OGVs), action was also being taken to reduce nitrogen emission. On January 1th, 2021 the NOx Emission Control Area or NECA for the North Sea and Baltic Sea came into effect. The NOx emission limit values apply to every marine diesel engine with a capacity of more than 130 kW. The emission standards (NOx limit in g/kWh) depend on the optimal operating speed of the engine or 'Rated Engine Speed' and are based on the ship’s keel laying date which divide the OGVs fleet into four tiers. A method was developed for the airborne monitoring of OGVs to evaluate their compliance by extending and modifying the sniffer sensor system in the Belgian coastguard aircraft with a NOx sensor for real-time CO2 and NOx measurements in the exhaust plume of OGVs.

Simple

Date (Creation)
2022-04-15T11:03:51Z
Date (Revision)
2023-04-26T09:48:31Z
Date (Publication)
2026-01-26T16:13:07.852Z
Date (Creation)
2016-05-19
Unique resource identifier
https://doi.org/10.24417/bmdc.be:dataset:2687
Identifier
bmdc.be:dataset:2687

Belgian Marine Data Centre

Other citation details

This dataset is composed of the following sources: Ward Van Roy (n.d.). Reanalysed ship emission measurements.

Publisher
  Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Vautierstraat 29 , Brussels , 1000 , Belgium Belgium Belgique België Belgien
https://www.naturalsciences.be
Custodian
  Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)
Vautierstraat 29 , Brussels , 1000 , Belgium Belgium Belgique België Belgien
https://www.bmdc.be
Owner
  Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
Vautierstraat 29 , Brussels , 1000 , Belgium Belgium Belgique België Belgien
https://www.naturalsciences.be
Author
  Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature)
Vautierstraat 29 , Brussels , 1000 , Belgium Belgium Belgique België Belgien
https://odnature.naturalsciences.be/
Theme
  • Fuel Sulphur Content

  • air pollution

  • airborne monitoring

  • marine environment

  • Sulfur dioxide

  • Nitrogen dioxide

  • Sulfur Emission Control Areas

  • Nitrogen Emission Control Area

  • Emission Control Area

  • ship emissions

Monitoring activity legislative drivers
  • MARPOL Convention
GEMET - Concepts, version 4.2.3
  • marine pollution
  • atmospheric emission
Marine Regions
  • Belgian part of the North Sea
Marine Regions
  • Belgian Exclusive Economic Zone
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Access constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

Reuse only, non commercial use only

Use limitation

Sensitive information withheld

Classification
Unclassified
Spatial representation type
Text, table
Distance
10.0  http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/ULAA/
Metadata language
English
Topic category
  • Oceans
N
S
E
W
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gml32:beginPosition
2015-09-28
Reference system identifier
EPSG / http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/4258
Distribution format
  • text/csv ( Unknown )

Distributor

Custodian
  Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)
Vautierstraat 29 , Brussels , 1000 , Belgium Belgium Belgique België Belgien
https://www.bmdc.be
Name

text/csv

Version

Unknown

Transfer size
1.708198
OnLine resource
Reanalysed ship emission measurements. Ward Van Roy ( WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download )

An HTTP link to download this dataset in CSV

OnLine resource
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) ( DOI )
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Statement

To calculate the FSC, the SO2 emission factor in g SO2/kg fuel was calculated based on the SO2 and CO2 concentration before and in the plume. When passing through the plume, the increased SO2 and CO2 compared to the background (bkg) was calculated by looking at the surface area under the respective concentration plots. To calculate the amount of kg burned fuel the amount of C was multiplied with the carbon content in the fuel, for marine fuels a carbon content of 87% was used. The NOx emission factor (EFNOx) in g NOx/kg fuel can be calculated by looking at the NOx and CO2 concentration. When hitting the exhaust plume, the increased NOx and CO2 compared to the background (bkg) are derived by looking at the surface area under the respective concentration plots. A list, which is updated every year, with all Keel Laying Years (KLYs) and MMSI numbers of 49327 OGVs larger than 70 m was obtained from GISIS and EMSA. For the initial NOx emission calculation, an SFC of 0.2 was used. When these initial calculation showed a value exceeding a predefined threshold, marine VHF radio contact was made with the vessel to request the actual fuel consumption (in metric tons/hour) and main engine power output, to be calculated and provided by the chief engineer. It was chosen to ask the total main engine power output as the provision of the crankshaft power output may not always be possible, reliable or as fast as the main engine total power output. The total power output will always be slightly higher than the crankshaft power due to friction losses and losses for auxiliary systems. Therefore it is assumed that the obtained NOx emission is an underestimation of the actual NOx emission. Based on the information obtained through radio communication, the SFC was calculated (for suspicious NOx measurements only).The sniffer sensor consists of a set of different sensors and equipment mounted in a 19” housing. The sampling units consist of a stainless-steel sampling tube (3/8”) on the bottom of the aircraft; a particle filter (1µm); a powerful vacuum pump (KNF); pressure and flow regulators; an Automatic Identification System (AIS) antenna; a Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna and an Aeronautical Radio INC. (ARINC) module. The ARINC module is connected to the Flight Management System (FMS) of the aircraft avionics suite (i.e. Garmin GNS600 and GTN650)The sniffer sensor consists of a set of different sensors and equipment mounted in a 19” housing. The analysis units are a Thermo Trace Level Ultraviolet fluorescence sensor, used for the measurement of SO2 in ppb (unitless); a Bioscience Licor Nondispersive Infrared NDIR sensor, used for the measurement of CO2 in ppm (unitless); an Ecotech Serinus 40, used for the measurement of NOx/NO in ppb (unitless); a zatoc mini log computer; a combined Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver.

File identifier
bmdc.be:dataset:2687 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Date stamp
2026-01-26T16:13:07.852Z
Metadata standard name

Geographic information -- Metadata

Metadata standard version

ISO 19115:2003/19139

Point of contact
  Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature), Belgian Marine Data Centre (BMDC)
Vautierstraat 29 , Brussels , 1000 , Belgium Belgium Belgique België Belgien
https://www.bmdc.be
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Keywords

Emission Control Area Fuel Sulphur Content Nitrogen Emission Control Area Nitrogen dioxide Sulfur Emission Control Areas Sulfur dioxide air pollution airborne monitoring marine environment ship emissions
GEMET - Concepts, version 4.2.3
atmospheric emission marine pollution
Monitoring activity legislative drivers
MARPOL Convention

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