Air Quality Benefits of Ship Fuel Regulations in the San Francisco Bay Area

Ocean-going vessels burning high-sulfur heavy fuel oil are an important emission source of air pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. Beginning July 1, 2009, an emission control area was put into effect at ports and along the California coastline, requiring use of low-sulfur marine fuels in place of heavy fuel oil in main engines of ships. To assess impacts of the fuel changes on air quality at the Port of Oakland and in the surrounding San Francisco Bay area, we analyzed speciated fine particle composition data from 4 urban sites and 2 more remote sites (Point Reyes and Pinnacles) from the IMPROVE network. Measured changes in concentrations of vanadium, a useful and specific tracer for heavy fuel oil combustion, are related to overall changes in primary aerosol emissions from ships. The results indicate a substantial reduction in vanadium concentrations after the fuel change, and a 13 to 38% decrease in SO2 concentration, with the SO2 decrease varying depending on proximity to shipping lanes. We inferred from emission factors documented in the literature that marine vessel contributions to primary fine particulate matter mass in the Bay Area, prior to the fuel change, were on the order of 1 to 5%.