Nowhere to hide with emission innovations

As is often quoted, ships are responsible for moving over 90% of goods around the world. They are the most widely used and environmentally efficient form of transport available.

However, the largest ship can emit about 5,000 tonnes of sulphur each year, which is equivalent to the emissions of about 50 million cars. It has also been proven that ships in ports emit significant quantities of particulate matter, contributing to cardiopulmonary disease and premature death for those working and living around a port, while the overall emissions contribute towards climate warming.

Two years ago, RightShip partnered with the Australian Marine Environment Protection Association (AUSMEPA) and launched the Maritime Emissions Portal (MEP) with $250,000 seed funding from the 2016 Google Impact Challenge to help address this important issue.

The initiative linked neatly with RightShip’s overarching mission to improve the safety and environmental sustainability of the maritime industry. Using Oceaneering PortVision’s AIS ship monitoring and tracking and matching this with RightShip’s data on more than 76,000 ships worldwide, the MEP offers — for the very first time — an easy way to measure, monitor and manage the air emissions from cargo ships.

RightShip’s online ship vetting platform, RightShip Qi, helps customers to manage marine risk by identifying and eliminating substandard ships from their supply chain. The data collection process provides details of each vessel’s engine size, fuel consumption and emissions performance, which can then be linked directly to the ship in real time using the satellite tracking data provided by PortVision.

As a result, the MEP can provide a comprehensive air emissions inventory, including the carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxide (SOx), nitrous oxide (NOx), and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10). It pinpoints the geographical location of the emissions to be mapped and uses a heat map to highlight the emission concentrations.

Testing phase complete

The first concept stage of the MEP has now been extensively tested in two ports: Prince Rupert Port Authority in British Columbia, and an iron ore mining port in Australia. The results have been verified by an independent third party and the feedback has been extremely positive.

The MEP allows ports to benchmark their operations, evaluate the source of the emissions, and to monitor a specific geographic area in near real time. This enables the port to take action to reduce polluting activities and to identify specific sources of emissions, for example certain ship types or locations like anchorage points.

AUSMEPA is excited by the possibility of applying this new technology in sensitive locations, where accurate data will help the port work with its stakeholders to make a real and positive difference to the surrounding environment.

The next step is to use the detailed feedback from the trial ports to enhance the reporting function, enabling the user to compare current data with historical records, highlighting progress made and measures taken, promoting transparency, helping to combat misinformation and supporting stakeholder engagement.

Using the MEP, ports and terminals planning expansions will be able to forecast the environmental emissions as part of their planning process, taking pre-emptive actions to mitigate risk right from the start.

The MEP is also particularly valuable to port authorities. Prince Rupert Port Authority, for example, has incentive programs which reward ships that are more environmentally friendly and efficient. It provides ports with detailed information to shape their reporting requirements, enabling compliance with local and international emissions regulations.

AUSMEPA is now seeking more funding to develop the MEP to the next level — both RightShip and PortVision have committed to further investment if wider industry buy-in can be secured — and a further 5–10 ports to trial the next stage are being sought.

In the longer term, AUSMEPA intends to roll out the MEP to its global MEPA network which would connect over 3,000 ports and dramatically improve the knowledge of air emissions associated with all shipping activities in port.

To find out more visit: https://www.ausmepa.org.au/maritime-emissions-portal.htm.

Kris Fumberger is sustainability manager at RightShip.