Primary particles in ship emissions

There is not much data available regarding particle emissions from ships. In this study the size distributions of particles in ship exhaust from three different ships in normal operational conditions were studied using a cascade impactor. The ships were equipped with slow- or medium-speed main engines and medium-speed auxiliary engines. The fuel was residual oil except for the auxiliary engines on one ship which used marine diesel. Large emissions and a dependence of the sulfur content in the fuel were observed. High amounts of relatively large particles (around 8 μm) were observed. These are attributed to re-entrained soot particles from walls in the engine systems. A strong variation between different ships was observed for the particle-size distribution and for the dependence on engine load. The particle emissions were found to be reduced to about half, over the whole size range, by an SCR system. The total particle emission, measured after dilution, varied between 0.3 and 3 g kW h−1 depending on load, fuel and engine.