Estimation of Contribution to PM2.5 from Ship Emissions over Korea

In order to manage fine particulate matter, class 1 carcinogen, various policies are being prepared by the government. The government announced a set a policy measures to confront pollution issues in November 2019. Diesel cars classified as grade 5 will be banned and maximum 27 coal power plants would be plugged off from December to March when fine particulate matter usually worsen to curtail air pollution by more than 20 percent. Despite such efforts, however, it is difficult to improve the concentration of fine particulate matter. In particular, as fine particulate matter management policies are biased toward the management of coal power plants or diesel cars, port and ship emissions management are relatively insufficient.

In the case of major Korea’s port cities such as Busan and Incheon, the impacts of fine particulate matter from ship emissions are analyzed to be significant. In particular, the use of low-grade fuel such as bunker C oil, which has high sulfur content, generates a large amount of fine particulate matter and other air pollutants. As such, for fine particulate matter management in port areas, the impact of ships, cargo handling equipment and cargo trucks, which are major sources of emissions, needs to be quantitatively understood.

Under this background, the emission characteristics of ship emissions were identified by using national air pollutants emissions data in 2015, which improved the calculation method of ship emission sources and the contribution concentration of PM2.5 was analyzed using WRF and CMAQ/BFM. The modelling period is one year in 2016, and the resolution of 9km modeling was applied to Korea.

As one of the main results, the annual mean PM2.5 contribution concentration from domestic ship emission sources was analyzed to be 0.57μg/㎥, and the PM2.5 contribution concentration by local governments was calculated to be most affected by the 1.39μg/㎥ in Busan. The results of this study have not taken into account additional sources of emissions such as cargo handling equipment and cargo trucks using ports, and if this is taken into account, the actual contribution concentration of PM2.5 in port areas is expected to be higher.

The results of this research can be used as basic data when establishing policies for reducing fine particulate matter by major emission sources by local governments.