A modelling system for the exhaust emissions of marine traffic and its application in the Baltic Sea area

Abstract

Abstract. A method is presented for the evaluation of the exhaust emissions of marine traffic, based on the messages provided by the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which enable the identification and location determination of ships. The use of the AIS data enables the positioning of ship emissions with a high spatial resolution, which is limited only by the inaccuracies of the Global Positioning System (typically a few metres) that is used in vessel navigation. The emissions are computed based on the relationship of the instantaneous speed to the design speed, and these computations also take into account the detailed technical information of the ships' engines. The modelling of emissions is also based on a few basic equations of ship design, including the modelling of the propelling power of each vessel in terms of its speed. We have also investigated the effect of waves on the consumption of fuel, and on the emissions to the atmosphere. The predictions of fuel consumption were compared with the actual values obtained from the shipowners. For a RoPax vessel, the predicted and reported values of fuel consumption agreed within an accuracy of 6%. According to the data analysis and model computations, the emissions of NOx, SOx and CO2 originating from ships in the Baltic Sea in 2007 were in total 400 kt, 138 kt and 19 Mt, respectively. A breakdown of emissions by flag state, ship's type and year of construction is also presented. The modelling system can be used as a decision support tool in the case of issues concerning, e.g., health effects caused by shipping emissions, the construction of emission-based fairway dues systems or emissions trading. The computation of emissions can also be automated, which will save resources in constructing emission inventories. Both the methodologies and the emission computation program can be applied in any sea region in the world, provided that the AIS data from that specific region are available.

An AIS-based approach to calculate atmospheric emissions from the UK fishing fleet

“…Two methods are used to calculate speed between chronologically consecutive AIS data points within the AIS data record produced by each vessel. The first averages the speeds contained in the AIS messages, similar to the interpolation method used by Jalkanen et al (2009). The second uses the great-circle distance, calculated using the Haversine formula (Sinnott, 1984), and time to calculate speed, similar to Olesen et al (2009).…”

“…Approaches using activity data derived from the messages broadcast by vessel's Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) have emerged as the state-of-the-art in recent years, offering the opportunity to produce accurate, vessel-specific spatially and temporally resolved emissions inventories (Jalkanen et al, 2009;MARIN, 2012;Olesen et al, 2009;Perez et al, 2009;Smith et al, 2014). However, complete emissions inventories of fishing fleets continue to rely on fuel-based methods, possibly due to issues associated with modelling fuel consumption of vessels engaged in trawling and dredging activities and because only a subset of fishing vessels currently broadcast AIS data.…”

Ice and AIS: ship speed data and sea ice forecasts in the Baltic Sea

“…AIS data contain, inter alia, a unique identification (MMSI number), position, course and speed of a vessel. Since the data coverage has increased considerably during the past 2 decades, the data set is increasingly used for scientific purposes (e.g., Montewka et al, 2010, assessed the collision risk of vessels; Jalkanen et al, 2009 andMiola et al, 2011 estimated the emissions of marine traffic).…”

Establishment of the Sustainable Ecosystem for the Regional Shipping Industry Based on System Dynamics

“…Results show that the proportion of emissions originating from container ships is the largest among all kinds of ships, and that of passenger ship is the second largest [42]. The total amount of exhaust emissions in the Baltic Sea during the whole year of 2007 is also calculated based on STEAM (Ship Traffic Estimation Assessment Model), which considered the influence of wave on fuel consumption and exhaust emissions [43]. In addition, the emission inventories for the largest port in Korea [44] and port of Taranto [45] are also established.…”