Study shows commercial ships pump soot at high rates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Large cargo ships spew more than twice as much soot than previously estimated, a new study of commercial vessel emissions says.

And worse, for people who live in port cities, tugboats are the sootiest of all. Overall, commercial ships release some 130,000 metric tons of soot per year, or 1.7 percent of the global total — much of it near highly populated coastlines, researchers report in Friday's edition of Geophysical Research Letters.

And global shipping is expected to grow two percent to six percent annually in coming years, according to the research team led by Daniel Lack of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The small dark soot particles absorb sunlight, the researchers pointed out. The particles create haze and affect how clouds form and make rain, changing a region's heat balance, according to the study.

In addition, the researchers warned, if commercial shipping expands into Arctic waters as ice cover lessens, soot will become a growing problem there too. "Commercial shipping emissions have been one of the least studied areas of all combustion emissions," Lack said in a statement.

Previous studies had focused on only a few ships. His team examined 96 vessels along the U.S. southeast coast and Texas.

China sails locally built LNG ship

(Bloomberg) — China took delivery of its second locally built liquefied natural gas tanker in Shanghai last week as the world's fastest-growing major economy increases imports of the cleaner-burning fuel to meet rising domestic demand.

The 147,000-cubic-meter Dapeng Yue will transport the fuel from Australia to Guangdong Dapeng LNG Corp., one of China's two LNG import terminals, the Beijing-based State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said today. China LNG Ship Management Co. received the vessel on July 10.

The tanker is one of five that Chinese shipyards are building to deliver the fuel to LNG terminals on the eastern coast of the second-largest energy-consuming nation. Demand for the fuel is rising as China promotes gas as a less polluting alternative to coal and oil. China aims to double its use of the fuel by 2010.

LNG is natural gas that has been chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume, for transportation by ship to destinations not connected by pipeline. It is turned back into gas for distribution to power plants and other buyers.

The first locally built tanker, Dapeng Sun, completed its maiden voyage to southern China's Guangdong province from Australia in May, Shenzhen-based Guangdong Dapeng LNG said May 4.

Dapeng Yue is managed by China LNG Ship Management Co., a venture between China LNG Shipping Holdings Ltd. and BP Shipping Ltd., according to today's statement. The ship will start its first voyage to Australia soon, it said.