Airborne Measurements Reveal the Underestimated Impact of Black Carbon Emissions from Ships

Airborne Measurements Reveal the Underestimated Impact of Black Carbon Emissions from Ships | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Airborne Measurements Reveal the Underestimated Impact of Black Carbon Emissions from Ships Ward Van Roy, Jean-Baptiste Merveille, Kobe Scheldeman, Annelore Van Nieuwenhove, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6411226/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The impacts of black carbon (BC) emissions on climate change, human health, and the environment are well-documented in scientific literature. In response, efforts have been made to reduce BC emissions, particularly in sectors such as energy production, industry, and road transport. However, the maritime shipping industry has largely been exempt from stringent BC emission regulations. While the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has established emission limits for pollutants such as SOx, NOx, and VOCs, as of today, BC emissions from ships are still unregulated at the international level. Whereas the IMO expected that BC emissions would be reduced with the adoption of the SOx regulations, especially within the sulphur emission control areas, this study found that these goals remain largely unmet. This research analyzes real-world BC emissions based on 886 measurements from ships operating in the southern North Sea. Results show that observed BC emission factors (EFs) are significantly higher than previously reported in the literature and those applied by the IMO. In particular, ships equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) demonstrate increased BC emissions, raising concerns about the environmental benefits of EGCS as a sustainable technology. Non-compliance with sulfur regulations also results in elevated BC emissions, underscoring the need for effective enforcement measures for the existing sulfur emission limits. Furthermore, BC EFs were found to be highly load-dependent, with ships emitting substantially more BC at lower engine loads. This is especially worrying as low engine loads are frequently used in the North Sea for navigation and strategic planning. While slow steaming is increasingly adopted for fuel efficiency at global level. These findings emphasize the significant leverage that the implementation of BC regulations and the development of BC abatement systems could represent for the maritime industry in its ambition to significantly reduce its climate impact. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementarymaterialV1.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6411226","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":440587563,"identity":"828d1e8f-f768-42e4-a1bd-247cf3009ccf","order_by":0,"name":"Ward Van 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In response, efforts have been made to reduce BC emissions, particularly in sectors such as energy production, industry, and road transport. However, the maritime shipping industry has largely been exempt from stringent BC emission regulations. While the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has established emission limits for pollutants such as SOx, NOx, and VOCs, as of today, BC emissions from ships are still unregulated at the international level. Whereas the IMO expected that BC emissions would be reduced with the adoption of the SOx regulations, especially within the sulphur emission control areas, this study found that these goals remain largely unmet. This research analyzes real-world BC emissions based on 886 measurements from ships operating in the southern North Sea. Results show that observed BC emission factors (EFs) are significantly higher than previously reported in the literature and those applied by the IMO. In particular, ships equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) demonstrate increased BC emissions, raising concerns about the environmental benefits of EGCS as a sustainable technology. Non-compliance with sulfur regulations also results in elevated BC emissions, underscoring the need for effective enforcement measures for the existing sulfur emission limits. Furthermore, BC EFs were found to be highly load-dependent, with ships emitting substantially more BC at lower engine loads. This is especially worrying as low engine loads are frequently used in the North Sea for navigation and strategic planning. While slow steaming is increasingly adopted for fuel efficiency at global level. These findings emphasize the significant leverage that the implementation of BC regulations and the development of BC abatement systems could represent for the maritime industry in its ambition to significantly reduce its climate impact.","manuscriptTitle":"Airborne Measurements Reveal the Underestimated Impact of Black Carbon Emissions from Ships","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-04-10 10:29:13","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6411226/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"8bbd3994-cdc0-4429-9a79-952a4daa2956","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 10th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":46907757,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences"},{"id":46907758,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences"},{"id":46907759,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Ocean sciences"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-04-10T11:23:37+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-04-10 10:29:13","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6411226","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6411226","identity":"rs-6411226","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}