Air Quality Improvement and Emission Reduction of PM10/2.5 in Bulk Ports

ongoing

EU ports handled more than 700 million tonnes of solid bulk during 2023, generating fugitive emissions of particulate matter (PM) associated with the management and transport of bulk solids in ports, mainly PM10 and PM2.5, affecting both the air quality of the port facilities and nearby urban areas, because many bulk ports operate near cities. The minimization of PM emissions to air is essential to ensure clean air for EU citizens in line with the EU legislation and the objectives of the Zero Pollution Action Plan, due to air pollution remains one of the most serious environmental health problems in Europe. The present project contributes to meeting this environmental objective by quantifying fugitive PM emissions and the effectiveness of mitigation measures or best practices, which will make it possible a comprehensive approach to air quality improvement and emission reduction in bulk ports. At present, there are very limited tools for obtaining specific emission factors and, most importantly, to determine the efficiency of mitigation measures. To this end, the development and fine-tune of an environmental operational control tool is proposed to predict, control and minimise PM10 and PM2.5 emissions from bulk solids management. In addition, the availability of an exhaustive inventory of specific emission factors and the effectiveness of a set of mitigation techniques or best operational practices currently implemented in bulk ports and associated companies will allow a more realistic prediction of air quality, an essential requirement for selecting the optimum protocols for bulk solids operations ensuring a PM emission reduction and the correspondent air quality improvement. This tool will be integrated into the port management system, permanently incorporating the environmental variable into port sector operations. This project is considered to be of a great interest due to the increase in activities related to management of solid bulk.