The Study on Monitoring and Management of Air Emissions from Ships Based on Carbon Balance Method

In the long-term development of the global shipping industry, air emissions from ships have caused different degrees of impact on the atmospheric environment in various places. Our ongoing research monitoring and management of air emissions from ships based on carbon balance method aims to design a software that can calculate exhaust mass flow based on fuel consumption and exhaust concentration, obtain the values of pollutants in ship air emission using the carbon balance method quickly and conveniently, and determine whether the emission limits are exceeded based on the final calculation results.

At present, diesel engine is still one of the main power sources for ships. The working process of diesel engine will produce NO_x, SO_x, PM, CO₂, CO, HC and other pollutants, which are the main causes of haze, photochemical smog and acid rain. In the long-term development of the global shipping industry, air emissions from ships have caused different degrees of impact on the atmospheric environment in various places, which is an important issue that cannot be ignored in the current global development process and brings a major challenge to the sustainable ecological environment and economic development, and will cause great harm to human health. According to the Fourth Greenhouse Gas Study released by IMO in 2020, the greenhouse gas emissions including - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, expressed in CO₂e - of total shipping (international, domestic and fishing) have increased from 977 million tonnes in 2012 to 1,076 million tonnes in 2018 (9.6% increase). In 2012, 962 million tonnes were CO₂ emissions, while in 2018 this amount grew 9.3% to 1,056 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions. The share of shipping emissions in global anthropogenic emissions has also increased from 2.76% in 2012 to 2.89% in 2018. It is evident that ship emissions have kept rising, and they need to be strictly regulated to avoid greater impact on the global warming problem and various environmental issues. In order to control ship emission pollution, relevant domestic and foreign organizations have formulated strict regulations on ship emission control. IMO, EU, the United States, etc. in the forefront of the world, has promulgated the ship emission control regulations, the ship pollutants put forward strict emission limit requirements. China is also stepping up the work of ship emission pollution control, and has issued the first national standards on ship engine emission control (Xiao and Yang, 2021).