Berth cruiser pollution=1 million car pollution ? What if it was worse than that ? Chapter 2: Cruiser Berth Emission

As indicated in the previous chapter I carry out this study without preconceived ideas, ideological or special interests, the conclusion of my article drew the reader's attention to the possibility that the NGO NABU could have considered wrong references of fuels burnt at berth , which could multiply by 35 the SO2 emissions of a cruise vessel.

Indeed since 2015 any ship calling in Europe has the obligation to use Marine Gas Oil MGO which contain a maximum of 0.10% sulfur and not 3.5% (Which was the sulfur content allowed by IMO on sea before it has been adjust to 0,5 % in 2020) as indicated by NAPU. As a result, we might think that the announced figure of 1 million cars could be reduced to about 30,000, which we will check.

In the same way that I referred to ADEME (French Environment Agency) for the calculation of car emissions, I will in this part consider the references of the European Environment Agency for the calculation of CO2, SO2, NOX and particulate emissions from ships from the consumption of MGO (That you could double check by access to page 17 of the following link 1.A.3.d Navigation (shipping) 2019 — European Environment Agency (europa.eu) )

The difficulty is to be able to estimate the consumption of MGO during the ships' stopovers, indeed the MRV reports include the annual CO2 emissions at berth (column AB of the reports) but not the corresponding number of hours at berth, on the other hand the time at sea is included (Column AT).

I therefore considered crossing 2 data sources, on the one hand the cruise programs of MSC and COSTA which include stopover times and at sea, with the time at sea included in the MRV reports of the same ships, to estimate the number of hours corresponding to the CO2 emissions at berth included in the MRV reports.

This is what allowed me to recalculate the consumption of MGO per hour and then during an average of 9 hours of calls for 5 MSC ships and 5 COSTA ships, and therefore their detailed emissions. Once these emissions data were established, I reconciled each of them with the car emission data to establish a number of cars equivalent to the pollution of each ship.

1 Methodology for calculating emissions

The MRV reports detailing the CO2 emissions and consumption of 12,000 ships of more than 5,000 Tons of all types have been public since 2018 and can be downloaded from the following link THETIS-MRV (europa.eu) These reports show in column AB the annual CO2 emissions during ship stopovers, dividing these quantities of CO2 emissions by the Marine Gas Oil (MGO) emission coefficient of 3.170 gives the quantity of MGO consumed link to this CO2 emission .

It is from this consumption of MGO that we are going to calculate the different quantities of emissions of SO2, NOX and Particles (PM 10) based on the table of emission coefficients of the European Environment Agency reproduced on page 17 of the document at the following link: :?1.A.3.d Navigation (shipping) 2019 — European Environment Agency (europa.eu) . As a reminder, the consumption of MGO with a low sulfur content (0.1%) during stopovers ships over 2 hours has been mandatory in Europe since 2015.

2 Methodology for calculating vessel berth time

MRV reports are a source of extraordinary data in terms of their reliability and precision. Remember that these reports are checked by 20 independent offices which check both the calculation methodology and the supporting documents for these calculations before they are approved and registered in the database, by the vessel operator. These data therefore come from the ship operator and are verified, and therefore difficult to dispute. However, there is a difficulty in determining a quantity of emissions per hour and stopover time, the quantity of CO2 emissions at the quay is not backed by a quantity of stopover hours, whereas this data exists for the time spent at sea. Consequently, I review the MSC and COSTA cruise programs calling at Marseilles to establish a pro rata of time at sea for time at berth, which gives this.

3???Calculation of hourly consumption of MGO

Once the number of hours at berth has been established, it is easy to establish both the hourly CO2 emissions and the hourly consumption of MGO by dividing the result by 3.170, these calculations are based on the 2021 reports except for 3 ships of COSTA which do not appear and for which I have taken into account the reports of 2019.

In view of these first figures, we can already see that COSTA ships consume less than those of MSC and are therefore, a priori at this stage, likely to emit less pollutants; But the 2 companies comply with European regulations. by “burning” MGO will both be considered virtuous by the French authorities in the event of an inspection.

4 Calculation of CO2, NOX, PM10 and SO2 emissions

Our study seeks to determine if it is correct that a stopover cruise ship pollutes as much as a million cars, so we must from the hourly consumption of MGO determined above, calculate the emissions of CO2, NOX, PM10 and SO2 from each ship in 9 hours

It is therefore from these values that we will be able to establish a comparison between these emissions from ships during a 9-hour stopover and the same emissions by a car on an urban circuit for 9 hours calculated in the first chapter and being established as follows.

It is therefore a question of dividing the emissions of ships by the data above to obtain the equivalent number of cars corresponding to these quantities of emissions.

5.Equivalent number of cars for CO2-NOX emissions

It should be noted that ATMOSUD (Regional Air Quality Agency) in a recent communication mentioned that the NOX emissions of a cruise ship were equal to 30,000 cars. COSTA ships are quite significantly less NOX emitters than those of MSC

6 Equivalent number of cars for PM10 and SO2 emissions

The most emitting ship which is still quite far from the NAPU data is therefore the COSTA FIRENZE with 600,000 car equivalents, closely followed by 2 MSC ships the SEASIDE, and SEA VIEW with emission quantities respectively equivalent to 560,000 and 530,000 cars

7.???Conclusion

I keep the same spirit as at the beginning of the study, no preconceived ideas, no ideology or interests to defend, but a strong pedagogical desire to send a message to decision-makers and actors to work on the data, to determine the necessary investments in "Zero smoke" electrical energy. It is, I believe, the will of all, both the municipality (which invest its share 10 million €), the port which invests heavily, the region which takes its share, but the controversies between each other on cruisers may have hidden the forest. Cruise ships representing 5% of stopovers of port of Marseille, aren't their emissions the tip of the iceberg compared to all port emissions? This is what I suggest you study in the 3rd chapter "Air pollution from vessels at berth "

Please be free to comment, forward, criticize, bring your own reflection to this study, far from any polemical and partisan spirit.