Hong Kong authorities set to ramp up fight against air pollution from ships by flying drones to monitor emissions
- Newly designed sensors can detect pollutants from vessels up to 50 metres from source, with move set to be launched by end of the year
Hong Kong environmental inspectors will take to the skies to police the city’s waters with drones to help enforce a new law requiring ships to burn cleaner marine fuels.
The sensor-equipped drones designed by the University of Science and Technology will be flown into smoke plumes spewed from ships to conduct real-time measurements mainly of sulphur dioxide emissions.
Dr Zhi Ning of the university’s environment and sustainability division, who led the one-year research project – funded by the Environmental Protection Department at a cost of HK$1.1 million (US$140,193) – said the idea was to provide support to what would otherwise be time- and labour-intensive enforcement work.
As of this month, all vessels within Hong Kong waters must use compliant fuels with a sulphur content of no more than 0.5 per cent.
Previous policing methods have been limited to examining ship log books on fuel use, visually assessing smoke opacity or manually extracting fuel samples for analysis.
