Ambient measurement of shipping emissions in Shanghai port areas

Abstract. Growing shipping activities in port areas have generated negative impacts on climate, air quality and human health. To better evaluate the environmental impact of shipping emissions, ambient air quality measurement was carried out at Shanghai port in the summer of 2016. Large throughput capacity and busy shipping traffics of Shanghai port make it an ideal place to characterize shipping emissions. Gaseous (NO, NO2, SO2, O3) and particulate concentrations (PM2.5), particle sizes and chemical composition of individual shipping emission particles were continuously monitored for 3 months. High temporal resolution data show that shipping emissions is a major culprit of local air pollution problems. Distinct shipping emission plumes were observed using online measurement in port area. The SO2 and Vanadium particles numbers were found to correlate best with shipping emissions in Shanghai port. Single particle mass spectra of fresh shipping emission were identified based on the dominant peaks of Sulfate, EC and indicative metals of V, Ni, Fe and Ca, and nitrate peaks in aged particles. Fresh shipping emission particles mainly concentrated in ultra-fine size range where their number contributions are more apparent than their mass. For the coastal port it is found appropriate to separate shipping emissions from land-based emissions by prevalent wind directions. Advanced measurement conducted in the present study show that in port region shipping emissions contributed 36.4 % SO2, 0.7 % NO, 5.1 % NO2, −0.9 % O3, 5.9 % PM2.5, 49.5 % Vanadium particles if land-based emissions were included, and 57.2 % SO2, 71.9 % NO, 30.4 % NO2, −16.6 % O3, 27.6 % PM2.5, 77.0 % Vanadium particles if land-based emissions were excluded.