Development of a spectrum-based ship fuel sulfur content real-time evaluation method

Mar Pollut Bull. 2023 Mar:188:114484. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114484. Epub 2023 Jan 18.

Abstract

Although maritime transport plays an essential role in the global economy, it inevitably imposes negative impacts on our living environment, especially for ships using fuel with high sulfur content. Nowadays, ship emission monitoring highly depends on manual inspection, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This study proposes a decision framework based on spectrum technology and the sulfur‑carbon ratio method to measure the ship fuel sulfur content. Specifically, after the Gaussian plume model optimization from four aspects, a multistep-based emission contribution evaluation method is developed to improve the evaluation accuracy. The proposed framework is validated by a suspected ship and a series of exempted ships from the Maritime Safety Administration in Nanjing, China. The validation results imply that the proposed framework has a certain enhancement in detection rate, evaluation accuracy and extensibility. It may provide an efficient and accurate supervision approach for the Maritime Safety Administration on ship fuel sulfur content measurement.

Keywords: Differential optical absorption spectrum; Fuel sulfur content; Improved Gaussian plume model; Remote sensing; Ship emission.

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants* / analysis
  • China
  • Particulate Matter / analysis
  • Ships*
  • Sulfur / analysis
  • Vehicle Emissions / analysis

Substances

  • Sulfur
  • Air Pollutants
  • Particulate Matter
  • Vehicle Emissions