L. Kattner et al.: Monitoring compliance with sulfur content regulations of shipping fuel 
10091 
www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/10087/2015/ 
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15,10087-10092, 2015 
December 2014 
195 
_Q 145 
Q. 
Q. 
■- 95 
O 
z 
45 
-5 
10.12.2014 12.12.2014 14.12.2014 16.12.2014 
January 2015 
December 2014 
45 
.o 35 
a. 
Ê 25 
O 15 
i/t 
5 
-5 
10.12.2014 12.12.2014 14.12.2014 16.12.2014 
January 2015 
Figure 2. Comparison of absolute NO and SO2 volume mixing ratio values measured over 2 weeks, 1 week in December 2014 and 1 week 
in January 2015 with comparable wind conditions. Each peak belongs to one emission plume of an individual ship. The reduction in SOg in 
2015 is obvious, while for NO, no reduction can be observed. 
Autumn 2014 January 2015 
Sulfur content in fuel [% m/m] Sulfur content in fuel [% m/m] 
Figure 3. Sulfur fuel content in autumn 2014, and in January 2015, 
after the change of fuel regulations. The lengths of the ships that 
have been analysed are colour-coded. While in 2014 only small 
ships had fuel sulfur contents below 0.2%, nearly all ships fell into 
this category in January 2015. 
5 Conclusions 
In this study, we have used the method of in situ measure 
ments of trace gases to implement a system to monitor com 
pliance of ships with sulfur fuel content regulations. This 
has been discussed and suggested before (Balzani Loov et 
al., 2014). Here we present a suitable location for perma 
nent stationary measurements near Hamburg harbour, one 
of the largest harbours in Europe, and demonstrate a mea 
surement approach that successfully characterises emissions 
from passing ships. We describe the method used to identify 
ship emission events and the corresponding ships and present 
a large data set on fuel usage of ships of 1413 analysed ship 
plumes altogether. This includes one of the first data sets af 
ter the most recent regulation change in the North Sea SEC A, 
Sulfur content in fuel [% m/m] 
Length of 
ships in m 
■ >300 
■ 250-300 
■ 200-250 
■ 150-200 
■ 100-150 
■ 50-100 
■ 0-50 
Figure 4. Detailed view of the January 2015 data set. The lengths 
of the ships are colour-coded; the red line indicates the 0.1 % limit, 
with the shaded area representing the upper limit uncertainty of 
30 %. The blue line indicates the suggested limit of 0.15 % for flag 
ging ships as exceeding the sulfur fuel content limit allowed. 
where fuel sulfur content limits were reduced from 1 to 0.1 % 
on 1 January 2015. 
Our data show that the vast majority (95.4%) of all the 
ships we have measured are indeed complying with the 
new regulation of 0.1 % sulfur fuel content. Compliance has 
dropped slightly compared to the value of more than 99 % 
observed for the 1 % sulfur limit in autumn 2014. It should 
be noted that the global oil price and thus MGO costs for 
the necessary sulfur quality in January 2015 was the lowest