Air emissions from the shipbuilding process

Abstract

Seaborn trade has a share of about 80 % in global supply chains and is responsible for approximately 10 % of global carbon emissions. This is why the environmental impact of ships and the shipbuilding process matter. Despite that, this topic is addressed rather sparsely in the present literature body. Hence, the environmental impact of the shipbuilding process is presented in this paper by introducing a novel bottom-up evaluation framework including steel processing, hull assembly, hull outfitting, process overheads, hull material, and ship outfit. Primary and secondary air emissions were identified based on electricity consumption and specific technological operations. Four main sources of harmful air emissions were identified namely the hull material, welding, coating, and process overheads. Based on that, respective mitigation measures were proposed and discussed. Finally, a plot for further research and development of this challenging topic is presented including requirements for methodological, procedural, and technical improvements.

Keywords: Air emissions; Carbon footprint; Embodied energy; Energy consumption; Life-cycle analysis; Shipbuilding process.