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This may come as a surprise to many people, but despite their proximity to the sea, many ports and shipping terminals around the world are hotbeds of air pollution.
This is mainly due to trucks and ships visiting ports, which can have a major impact on people working in and living near ports.
But what can be done about air pollution in ports and how does it relate to the even more important issue of decarbonizing the maritime sector?
Will Barrett, national senior director of clean air activities at the American Lung Association, said in an interview that ports are one of the biggest sources of air pollution in Southern California.
Barrett added that pollution comes from two main sources.
The first is the ships themselves that enter and leave the port. If ships cannot connect to a power source after docking, they leave their engines running, which he said could lead to “huge levels of pollution.”
Second, Barrett said air pollution also comes from the thousands of trucks that bring goods to and from the port every day.
He said the combination of these sources could lead to huge health burdens for people working in ports and those living near them.
“In California, diesel exhaust from cargo transportation is estimated to cause thousands of deaths each year, and these deaths are concentrated in communities closest to ports and other cargo facilities,” Barrett said.
“These are typically low-income communities that struggle with excess diesel exhaust and the associated health burdens.”
Dr. Afif El-Hasan, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente in Orange County, California, said in an interview that many cargo ships use fuel with higher sulfur content, which can increase the amount of pollution they produce.
“Diesel releases many different types of compounds, and some of them are also carcinogens,” Dr. El-Hasan said.
“The problem with these particles is that they get past the lungs’ natural defenses, enter the bloodstream and affect other parts of the body.
“These chemicals can lead to cardiovascular disease as well as damage to the lungs themselves,” he told me.
One company taking on the challenge of reducing emissions from maritime transport is NatPower Marine, which is investing £3 billion in a global network of 120 clean ports to electrify shipping and improve local air quality.
NatPower Marines chief executive Stefano Sommadossi said in an interview that while ports can be centers of air pollution, they can also become “hubs of solutions.”
Sommadossi added that this could be done by electrifying ships, first with a hybrid model similar to those used in cars and trucks, and then fully electrified.
“Moving to all-electric vehicles is the cheapest solution for the maritime industry,” he told me.
“However, operators need to solve the chicken-and-egg puzzle here because if they want to convert their fleet to all-electric, they need charging points.
“We are creating the first network dedicated to ship electrification so that ship operators can solve this problem and migrate their fleets to fully electric or hybrid propulsion.”
Another way to reduce emissions is to capture and store carbon dioxide. Carbon Ridge has developed modular onboard carbon capture and storage solutions for the maritime sector.
The company’s CEO and founder, Chase Dwyer, said in an interview that his system is a “full exhaust gas treatment solution” for marine vessels.
Dwyer added that it significantly reduces carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide emissions and can be installed on a wide range of vessels, from containers to tugboats.
“In many cases, this solution could enable ships to be decarbonized by up to 90% of their total CO2 emissions and almost all other emissions,” Dwyer said.
Carbon Ridge recently announced a $9.5 million contract extension, with a total of $15.5 million raised to date.
The round was led by Crosscut Ventures and Western Technology Investment (WTI).
Crosscut Ventures managing director and co-founder Brian Garrett said in an interview that Carbon Ridge has taken a “very pragmatic approach” to reducing emissions.
Garrett said both freight carriers and boat owners want to clean up their supply chains and achieve carbon neutral goals.
“When there is both supply and demand in an industry, working hard to solve these problems and provide solutions, there is real potential,” Garrett added.