TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ship traffic is known as an important contributor to air pollution. Regulations aimed at reducing sulfur oxide pollution by limiting the fuel sulfur content (FSC) may also decrease primary particulate matter (PM) emitted from ships. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding how the FSC affects secondary aerosol formation. The emissions from a research ship engine operated with either low sulfur heavy fuel oil (LS-HFO) (FSC = 0.5%) or marine gas oil (MGO) (FSC = 0.01%), were photochemically processed in the oxidation flow reactor "PEAR" to achieve an equivalent photochemical age between 0 and 9 days in the atmosphere. FSC was found to have no significant impact on secondary organic aerosol formation after 3 days of aging, at 1.7 +/- 0.4 g/kg for MGO and 1.5 +/- 0.4 g/kg for LS-HFO. Furthermore, the composition and oxidative pathways remained similar regardless of FSC. However, because of the higher secondary SO4 formation and primary aerosol emissions, LS-HFO had significantly higher total PM than MGO.
AU  - Paul, A.*
AU  - Kokkola, T.*
AU  - Fang, Z.*
AU  - Ihalainen, M.*
AU  - Czech, H.
AU  - Etzien, U.*
AU  - Hohaus, T.*
AU  - Sippula, O.*
AU  - Rudich, Y.*
AU  - Buchholz, B.*
AU  - Kiendler-Scharr, A.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
C1  - 73937
C2  - 57249
CY  - Heidelberger Platz 3, Berlin, 14197, Germany
TI  - The impact of photochemical aging on secondary aerosol formation from a marine engine.
JO  - npj clim. atmos. sci.
VL  - 8
IS  - 1
PB  - Nature Portfolio
PY  - 2025
SN  - 2397-3722
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ship traffic substantially contributes to air pollution, thus affecting climate and human health. Recently introduced regulations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on the fuel sulfur content (FSC) caused a shift in marine fuel onsumption from heavy fuel oils (HFO) to diesel-like distillate fuels, but also to alternative hybrid fuels and the operation of sulfur scrubbers. Using multi-wavelength thermal-optical carbon analysis (MW-TOCA), our study provides emission factors (EF) of carbonaceous aerosol particles and link the fuel composition to features observed in the soot microstructure, which may be exploited in online monitoring by single-particle mass spectrometry (SPMS). Particulate matter from distillate fuels absorbs stronger light of the visible UV and near-infrared range than HFO. However, Simple Forcing Efficiency (SFE) of absorption weighted by EF of total carbon compensated the effect, leading to a net reduction by >50% when changing form HFO to distillate fuels.
AU  - Bauer, M.*
AU  - Czech, H.
AU  - Anders, L.*
AU  - Passig, J.
AU  - Etzien, U.*
AU  - Bendl, J.
AU  - Streibel, T.
AU  - Adam, T.
AU  - Buchholz, B.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
C1  - 72558
C2  - 56616
CY  - Heidelberger Platz 3, Berlin, 14197, Germany
TI  - Impact of fuel sulfur regulations on carbonaceous particle emission from a marine engine.
JO  - npj clim. atmos. sci.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
PB  - Nature Portfolio
PY  - 2024
SN  - 2397-3722
ER  - 

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Ship engines in the open ocean and Arctic typically combust heavy fuel oil (HFO), resulting in light-absorbing particulate matter (PM) emissions that have been attributed to black carbon (BC) and conventional, soluble brown carbon (brC). We show here that neither BC nor soluble brC is the major light-absorbing carbon (LAC) species in HFO-combustion PM. Instead, “tar brC” dominates. This tar brC, previously identified only in open-biomass-burning emissions, shares key defining properties with BC: it is insoluble, refractory, and substantially absorbs visible and near-infrared light. Relative to BC, tar brC has a higher Angstrom absorption exponent (AAE) (2.5–6, depending on the considered wavelengths), a moderately-high mass absorption efficiency (up to 50% of that of BC), and a lower ratio of sp2- to sp3-bonded carbon. Based on our results, we present a refined classification of atmospheric LAC into two sub-types of BC and two sub-types of brC. We apply this refined classification to demonstrate that common analytical techniques for BC must be interpreted with care when applied to tar-containing aerosols. The global significance of our results is indicated by field observations which suggest that tar brC already contributes to Arctic snow darkening, an effect which may be magnified over upcoming decades as Arctic shipping continues to intensify.
AU  - Corbin, J.C.*
AU  - Czech, H.*
AU  - Massabò, D.*
AU  - Buatier De Mongeot, F.*
AU  - Jakobi, G.
AU  - Liu, F.*
AU  - Lobo, P.*
AU  - Mennucci, C.*
AU  - Mensah, A.A.*
AU  - Orasche, J.
AU  - Pieber, S.M.*
AU  - Prévôt, A.S.H.*
AU  - Stengel, B.*
AU  - Tay, L.-L.*
AU  - Zanatta, M.*
AU  - Zimmermann, R.
AU  - El Haddad, I.*
AU  - Gysel, M.*
C1  - 56208
C2  - 46891
TI  - Infrared-absorbing carbonaceous tar can dominate light absorption by marine-engine exhaust.
JO  - npj clim. atmos. sci.
VL  - 2
PY  - 2019
SN  - 2397-3722
ER  -