Categorization of air pollution by ships in the Port of Santos (Santos, Brazil)

Abstract

The Port of Santos (Santos, SP) is a protagonist in the city's economy, but its activities generate conflicts with urban residential space. The objective was to measure air pollution from ships in the Port of Santos, to demonstrate to public bodies the importance of this problem, aiming to promote improvements in the health and quality of life of the region's population. The methodology used was the conversion of the volume of cargo transported into fractions of atmospheric pollutants, considering the size of the ships and their navigation paths from the entrance to the port channel to the docking point during FEB/2021 to FEB/2022. Carbon dioxide was the pollutant with the highest emission in the analyzed period, followed by nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter. The increase in the volume of transported goods associated with their greater frequency of movements had a direct relationship with the quantities of pollutants. The operating time of the vessels' engines both when entering and leaving the Port impacted the number of pollutants, as well as their navigation speed, since reduced speed when entering the Port channel provides greater fuel savings and, consequently, less pollution. Therefore, the results suggest the presence of many atmospheric polluting sources in the port region of Santos, mainly CO₂, with solid bulk transport being the main responsible in the analyzed period.

Key words: ecotoxicology; atmospheric pollution; ships.