In Singapore, the NTU research team found that emissions were modelled to have more than doubled (123%), during the pandemic period, while they increased twofold in Los Angeles (up 100%), almost two-thirds (65%) in Long Beach, California, and over a quarter (27%) in Hamburg.
The largest increase is in container and dry bulk carriers!
Containerships and dry bulk carriers marked the sharpest increase of all total emissions, seeing an average increment of 94% and 142% respectively, compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NTU study modelled that ship emissions in all four ports increased by an average of 79% because of the prolonged turnaround time in port.
The pollutants studied in the research were carbon dioxide, sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and methane.
The NTU team calculated the fuel consumption and pollutant emissions of the ships using actual ship movement data sourced through AXSMarine. It provided information of the ships, including their sailing speed, time duration, coordinates, navigational status, as well as ship-specific information.
Additional information was also obtained from the various port administration authorities where the study was done, as well as from Clarksons.
Professor Law Wing Keung from NTU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, who led the study, said: “Our study presents a review of the ship emission outlook amid the pandemic uncertainty. Lockdown measures and other Covid-19 restrictions on human activity have upended the landscape for the shipping sector and significantly affected the operating patterns of maritime and trade, leading to the computed outcome revealing significant increase in pollutant emissions in the seaports in our study.”
On the other hand in Southern California, where ship queues have garnered the most headlines, regulators have recently moved to get ships to form queues for overbooked berths 150 miles from shore.
Soruce: Splash247
