WASHINGTON: The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will spend $1 million to monitor air pollution emitted by a dozen Maersk Line container ships over the next three years to determine the effectiveness of recently installed emission upgrades, it was announced Monday. Monitoring equipment will be installed on each of the Maersk ships, which can plug into shore power. The ships recently underwent a $125 million retrofit to further reduce emissions and make the vessels more efficient.
The two ports will split the $1 million monitoring costs. “This is the equivalent of strapping a Fitbit onto a large container ship,” said Lee Kindberg, director of sustainability and the environment at Maersk. “We’ll be tracking vessel performance and emissions 24/7,” Kindberg said. “This advances our ability to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants on a global scale.”
Maersk officials estimate that the efficiency improvements will lower fuel use by more than 10 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by about 31,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Other emissions, such as diesel particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx) are also expected to be reduced.
