Estimation of air pollution from ships in the Boka Kotorska Bay

Abstract

The Boka Kotorska Bay, with the Port of Kotor, has become one of the most attractive cruising destinations at the Adriatic Sea. It shows not only great potential in terms of economy, but also great danger if environmental issues are taken into consideration. Emission from cruise ships represents majority of anthropogenic emissions of pollutants in this area, since there are no merchant ports and industrial plants in the bay. In this paper exhaust emission from ships in the Boka Kotorska Bay in 2015 was calculated by using emission estimation methodology. Only cruise ships were taken for research since that is the only shipping activity in the bay, besides yachting. Cruise ship’s gross tonnage, marine engine types, marine fuel types, navigation modes and retention times of the ship in the Bay were taken into consideration in the study. Total emissions from cruise ships in the Boka Kotorska Bay area in 2015 were estimated as follows: 258.50 t y-1 of NOx, 578.80 t y-1 of CO, 24,996.74 t y-1 of CO2, 126.87 t y-1 of VOC, 9.42 t y-1 of PM and 7.84 t y-1 of SOx in the case when assumed that cruise ships burn low sulphur fuels and 418.95 t y-1 of SOx in the case of high sulphur fuels.