Prevention of ships’ emissions to the air

Ships’ emissions to the air make up a significant part of total emissions in port cities. Running ships’ engines cause atmospheric emissions and vibrations at ports, which have territorial impacts. If the emissions were reduced, air quality in cities would improve significantly. In addition to this, noise in the vicinity of ports would abate if the engines were disengaged. These are important factors of better living environment.

The solution needs to be sought to decrease fuel consumption and air emissions at ports. During the New Hansa project, basic data is collected from the participating ports and cities. The research results will provide an overview of major differences between the ports and cities and suggestions for improvements. The most innovative part of the project will be a pilot installation of a new shore based power supply system.

“In discussions with ship owners it turned out that it would be highly desirable to provide shore-to-ship electricity supply in a standardized manor which could serve all possible ship board power systems. Until now there are 10 KV, 440 V and 380 V connected with either 50 Hz or 60 Hz frequencies. Ship-shore power supply facilities in ports are now dedicated to special ferry routes only and mostly of low voltage design which can not meet varying demand.” says the project co-ordinator Mr. Jörg Sträussler, from Baltic Energy Forum e.V.