Camila Arielle Bufato Moreira, Gabriela Polezer, Jéssica Caroline dos Santos Silva, Priscila Caroline de Souza Zorzenão, Ana Flavia Locateli Godoi, Luciano Fernandes Huergo, Carlos Itsuo Yamamoto, Yara de Souza Tadano, Sanja Potgieter-Vermaak, Rodrigo Arantes Reis, Andrea Oliveira, Ricardo Henrique Moreton Godoi
{"title":"Impact assessment of IMO’s sulfur content limits: a case study at latin America’s largest grain port","authors":"Camila Arielle Bufato Moreira, Gabriela Polezer, Jéssica Caroline dos Santos Silva, Priscila Caroline de Souza Zorzenão, Ana Flavia Locateli Godoi, Luciano Fernandes Huergo, Carlos Itsuo Yamamoto, Yara de Souza Tadano, Sanja Potgieter-Vermaak, Rodrigo Arantes Reis, Andrea Oliveira, Ricardo Henrique Moreton Godoi","doi":"10.1007/s11869-024-01576-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The world ocean fleet consumes around 4.3 million barrels of heavy fuel oil (HFO) daily, releasing large amounts of sulfur-enriched gaseous and particulate pollutants into the atmosphere. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set new sulfur content limit values for HFO under the Global Sulfur Cap 2020 (GSC-2020) program to reduce its environmental and public health impact. This study assesses the environmental benefits of the sulfur content limit values for heavy fuel oil set by the IMO on sulfur emissions, trace element concentrations, and ship related PM<sub>2.5</sub> pollution at Paranaguá, the largest grain port in Latin America. X-ray Fluorescence analysis revealed that the concentrations of vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni) in PM<sub>2.5</sub> (i.e., finer particulate matter), which are prevalent trace elements in ship exhaust emissions, decreased significantly from 25.4 ng m<sup>− 3</sup> and 5.8 ng m<sup>− 3</sup> in 2019 to 3.5 ng m<sup>− 3</sup> and 2.2 ng m<sup>− 3</sup> in 2020, respectively. The V/Ni ratio also changed from 4.3 in 2019 to 1.8 in 2020, suggesting significant changes in the signature of marine vessel emission. Sulfur emissions also decreased, with average concentrations of 2.0 µg m<sup>− 3</sup> in 2019 and 1.2 µg m<sup>− 3</sup> in 2020. The primary PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration, attributed to ship emissions using V as a tracer, was reduced from ~ 80% in 2019 (mean = 35.8%) to less than 5% (mean = 4.9%) in 2020. Inhalation exposure to V and Ni in PM<sub>2.5</sub> showed a decrease in the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) in 2020 compared to 2019, indicating potential health benefits. Our findings underscore the need for more robust international shipping policies prioritizing health objectives and reducing greenhouse gas emissions concurrently. Despite the significant health benefits associated with the implementation of low-sulfur fuels in global shipping, there remains a need for further investigation into the long-term effects of these fuels on air quality and human health.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49109,"journal":{"name":"Air Quality Atmosphere and Health","volume":"17 10","pages":"2337 - 2351"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Air Quality Atmosphere and Health","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-024-01576-5","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The world ocean fleet consumes around 4.3 million barrels of heavy fuel oil (HFO) daily, releasing large amounts of sulfur-enriched gaseous and particulate pollutants into the atmosphere. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has set new sulfur content limit values for HFO under the Global Sulfur Cap 2020 (GSC-2020) program to reduce its environmental and public health impact. This study assesses the environmental benefits of the sulfur content limit values for heavy fuel oil set by the IMO on sulfur emissions, trace element concentrations, and ship related PM2.5 pollution at Paranaguá, the largest grain port in Latin America. X-ray Fluorescence analysis revealed that the concentrations of vanadium (V) and nickel (Ni) in PM2.5 (i.e., finer particulate matter), which are prevalent trace elements in ship exhaust emissions, decreased significantly from 25.4 ng m− 3 and 5.8 ng m− 3 in 2019 to 3.5 ng m− 3 and 2.2 ng m− 3 in 2020, respectively. The V/Ni ratio also changed from 4.3 in 2019 to 1.8 in 2020, suggesting significant changes in the signature of marine vessel emission. Sulfur emissions also decreased, with average concentrations of 2.0 µg m− 3 in 2019 and 1.2 µg m− 3 in 2020. The primary PM2.5 concentration, attributed to ship emissions using V as a tracer, was reduced from ~ 80% in 2019 (mean = 35.8%) to less than 5% (mean = 4.9%) in 2020. Inhalation exposure to V and Ni in PM2.5 showed a decrease in the hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) in 2020 compared to 2019, indicating potential health benefits. Our findings underscore the need for more robust international shipping policies prioritizing health objectives and reducing greenhouse gas emissions concurrently. Despite the significant health benefits associated with the implementation of low-sulfur fuels in global shipping, there remains a need for further investigation into the long-term effects of these fuels on air quality and human health.
期刊介绍：
Air Quality, Atmosphere, and Health is a multidisciplinary journal which, by its very name, illustrates the broad range of work it publishes and which focuses on atmospheric consequences of human activities and their implications for human and ecological health.
It offers research papers, critical literature reviews and commentaries, as well as special issues devoted to topical subjects or themes.
International in scope, the journal presents papers that inform and stimulate a global readership, as the topic addressed are global in their import. Consequently, we do not encourage submission of papers involving local data that relate to local problems. Unless they demonstrate wide applicability, these are better submitted to national or regional journals.
Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health addresses such topics as acid precipitation; airborne particulate matter; air quality monitoring and management; exposure assessment; risk assessment; indoor air quality; atmospheric chemistry; atmospheric modeling and prediction; air pollution climatology; climate change and air quality; air pollution measurement; atmospheric impact assessment; forest-fire emissions; atmospheric science; greenhouse gases; health and ecological effects; clean air technology; regional and global change and satellite measurements.
This journal benefits a diverse audience of researchers, public health officials and policy makers addressing problems that call for solutions based in evidence from atmospheric and exposure assessment scientists, epidemiologists, and risk assessors. Publication in the journal affords the opportunity to reach beyond defined disciplinary niches to this broader readership.
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