Digital models for ship emissions

Ship emissions have a major impact on air quality. SO2 and NOx emissions from ships are expected to exceed emissions from all other sources in Europe by 2020. The effect on air quality is evident.

Witteveen+Bos developed a shipping emissions model for the Port of Antwerp and has successfully applied this model to the Port of Hamburg. This IT application provides insight into contamination levels and the impact of future trends and choices on contamination. Ship activity data are converted into consistent activity data for sailing, lockage, mooring and ships at berth.

The applications EMPORTANT and EMPORT-HAM (Emission Model PORT of ANTwerp or HAMburg) use local characteristics such as the positions of waterways, locks and docks. The application calculates actual or future emissions based on the type of activity, the ship characteristics, the activity data, emission factors and fuel factors. The results can be viewed in geographical maps or other file formats for further analysis. The application is designed to respond quickly to new questions and scenarios and to keep track of performance.

For the Port of Hamburg, the emission model was successfully migrated to a new software framework in a more robust modular design. Among its default functionalities are user management, task scheduling and system performance and progress monitoring.