AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Sulfur Particulate Emissions from Ocean Going Vessels with Scrubber System
JIACHENG YANG, David R. Cocker III, Kent C. Johnson, Wayne Miller, Thomas D. Durbin, Yu Jiang, Georgios Karavalakis, University of California, Riverside
Abstract Number: 382 Working Group: Control and Mitigation Technology
Abstract Ship emissions generated by the merchant fleet are reported to represent a significant contribution to global anthropogenic emissions and lead to a change of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and of climate. Emissions from ocean going vessels (OGVs) not only effect the population living near the ports and coastlines, but also those living hundreds of miles inland. Sulfur emissions from OGVs are a particular concern in causing health and environmental effects worldwide. Since January 2012, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has required all ships to operate with fuels less than 3.5% sulfur and the IMO will potentially set a future goal of using fuel with less than 0.5% sulfur depending on the midterm review in 2018. Additionally, the IMO has special fuel quality provisions for emission control areas (ECAs), where a rule has been in place since January 2015 requiring the use of less than 0.1% sulfur in the fuel. Currently, there are four existing ECAs around North America and Western Europe with the potential for further expansion into East Asia and Australia. Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) is still allowed in ECAs if an equivalent method (i.e., exhaust gas cleaning system (EGCS) or scrubbers) is used to reduce sulfur emissions (gas and particulate) to levels equivalent to those provided by the fuel sulfur standard.
Utilizing a scrubber to reduce the sulfur emissions to an equivalent low sulfur fuel level is a strategy that has been generally accepted both by governmental agencies and ship owners due to its high sulfur emissions reduction and also the long term cost benefit of operation compared to the use low sulfur fuel. Few studies have been done to evaluate the performance of scrubber systems on OGVs and there is a need to understand how to accurately measure ship emissions during use. This study provides emission measurements of gaseous, particulate matter (PM), and elemental and organic carbon from three OGVs ranging from Tier 0 to Tier 2 with scrubber systems. The scrubber system show an over 95% reduction in SOx, but very limited reductions on sulfur from the particle phase. This is attributed to the natural formation of the nucleation mode sulfuric acid particles under conditions that they are not efficiently eliminated by the scrubber system. Considering sulfur emissions as a whole, both gaseous and particulates, the scrubber systems equivalent sulfur emissions were higher than those achieved by using low sulfur fuel alone.