Ships burn thick oil known as residual fuel. Residual fuel comes from the bottom of barrel and is the leftover black liquid from gasoline and diesel. This highly toxic substance has caused more than 60,000 premature deaths because it contains high concentrations of sulfur, nitrogen and carbon. The fuel is hazardous to the coastal environment and port communities.
The United Nations decided to limit sulfur concentration in such fuel by 2020. And, locally, the California Air Resources Board requires ocean-going vessels to switch to cleaner marine gas fuels within 200 nautical miles from shore. Efficient and effective enforcement mechanisms are needed to ensure these requirements are being met in practice by shipping vessels entering ports. Our team’s mission was to learn whether shippers are complying with these sulfur limitations through the use of aerial drones equipped with sensors.
Final report: UAV-Based Gas Sensor Systems Help Control Air Pollution From Ocean-Going Vessels
Student Team: Ryan Hallman, Anthony Rosas, Luna Bai, Gray Strandberg, Victor Vu, and Sherry Yan
Advisor: Dr. Pablo Saide (IoES Professor, UCLA)
Client: Mr. Alex Spataru (President, The Adept Group, Inc.)
Special thanks to…
Bob Arp
VP, University Advancement
California State University Maritime Academy
Barry Brennan
President
Flying Lion, Inc.
Jack Broadbent
Chief Exec. Officer
Bay Area Air Quality Management District
Rick Cameron
Deputy Executive Director
Port of Long Beach
Marc Carreras
Air Quality Specialist
South Coast Air Quality Management District
Michael Carter
Acting Associate Administrator for Environment and Compliance
Maritime Administration, United States Department of Transportation
Nicole Cleary
Deputy Director
Center for Environmental Research and Technology, UC Riverside
Mario Cordero
Exec. Director
Port of Long Beach
John Coyle
Chief Engineer
California State University Maritime Academy
RADM Thomas Cropper
President
California State University Maritime Academy
Kent Johnson
Research Engineer
Center for Environmental Research and Technology, UC Riverside
Peter Kareiva
Director
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Debbi Klossing
Manager
California Air Resources Board
Jon & Bettina Knudsen
CEO, CMO/COO
EXPLICIT
Sang-Mi Lee
Program Supervisor
South Coast Air Quality Management District
Jason Low
Asst. Deputy Exec. Officer
South Coast Air Quality Management District
Joe Lyou
South Coast Air Quality Management District & Coalition for Clean Air
Board Member, President
Mary Nichols
Chair
California Air Resources Board
Captain Sam Pecota
Director of Marine Programs
California State University Maritime Academy
Andrea Polodori
Atmospheric Measurements Manager
South Coast Air Quality Management District
Todd Sax
Chief, Enforcement Division
California Air Resources Board
Heather Tomley
Managing Director of Planning and Environmental Affairs
Port of Long Beach
Robert Wimmer
Sr. Instrumentation Specialist
South Coast Air Quality Management District
Daniel Yuska
Office of the Environment
Maritime Administration, United States Department of Transportation