Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Maritime Faculty, Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University, Balikesir, Turkey.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jun 20;774:145719. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145719. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Ships, which are the backbone of world trade, are also major emission generators. IMO has prepared a regulation that came into force on January 1, 2020, in particular to reduce ship-related sulphur oxides. Accordingly, the sulphur content of the marine fuels cannot exceed 0.5% by mass. Although these fuels have a significant effect in reducing the sulphur oxides, the holistic environmental effects of the fuels must be examined within a life cycle perspective. In this study, LCA of four different marine fuels were realized and the environmental impacts of the fuels in production, distribution, and operation processes were investigated. The main purpose of this study is to increase precision by focusing on a small number of fuels, while increasing accuracy by obtaining a large number of LCA results. It is concluded that despite the success of low sulphur fuels during operation, the overall environmental effects are higher than other fuels. According to the LCA results, there are no significant differences between the fuels and HFO still remains an important and preferable fuel for the environment. Consequently, in life cycle perspective, it was concluded that the expected results of IMO 2020 Sulphur Cap are not at a desirable level. Thus, alternative fuels would be more beneficial in terms of total environmental issues and IMO should focus more on developing new regulations and policies on alternative fuels.
船舶是世界贸易的支柱，也是主要的排放物生成者。国际海事组织（IMO）制定了一项规定，该规定于 2020 年 1 月 1 日生效，目的是特别减少与船舶有关的硫氧化物排放。因此，船舶燃料的含硫量不得超过质量的 0.5%。尽管这些燃料在减少硫氧化物方面有显著效果，但必须从生命周期的角度来检验燃料的整体环境影响。在本研究中，对四种不同的船舶燃料进行了生命周期评估，研究了燃料在生产、分配和运行过程中的环境影响。本研究的主要目的是通过关注少数几种燃料来提高精度，并通过获得大量的生命周期评估结果来提高准确性。研究结果表明，尽管在运行过程中低硫燃料取得了成功，但总体环境影响高于其他燃料。根据生命周期评估结果，燃料之间没有显著差异，重质燃料油仍然是一种对环境重要且更可取的燃料。因此，从生命周期的角度来看，IMO 2020 年硫排放上限的预期效果并不理想。因此，替代燃料在总体环境问题方面更有利，IMO 应更加关注替代燃料的新法规和政策的制定。
