It has been a usual sight that the luxury liner Majestic Princess operated by Carnival Group, a global cruise company, sits charging at the Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal in Shanghai.Shore power can help ships reduce their emissions by moving away from using oil to generate energy. “Developing a shore power system for a green port is just one of the projects for eco-friendly shipping conducted by the China Merchants Group (CMG),” Fu Gangfeng,Director and Group President of CMG Ltd., a state-owned enterprise whose traditional business is shipping along the Yangtze River, told Xinhua News Agency.
The shore power supply system has been in use for a year and has already contributed to 23,000 tons in reduced emissions. The Yangtze River, China’s longest waterway，is one of the busiest rivers in the world. In 2017, 2.5 billion tons of goods were delivered along this west-east water route, one of the reasons why the river has become known as a golden waterway.
Compared with other methods, transportation via water has both advantages in cost and transport capacity, as well as green benefits, by saving power and reducing emissions. But the shipping lanes of the Yangtze have also caused serious environmental problems. According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 60 percent of inland vessels are distributed in the low reaches of the Yangtze, most of which use marine fuel, a major source of pollution along the waterway. Moreover, pollution caused by industrial accidents, domestic sewage dumped by ships and heavy metal sediment from the bottom of vessels have also had a detrimental effect on the river’s ecosystem.
In the Three Gorges area, diesel power generation emits around 10 tons of sulfides, 4,000 tons of carbon oxides and 3 tons of PM2.5 annually, posing a serious risk to the air qualityand ecological environment of the region. In 2017, there were 614 ships in the Three Gorges Dam area, with an average waiting time of 106 hours. During the overhaul of the ship locks in 2018, there were 1,084 ships waiting for an average duration of 202 hours. Accordingly, the supervision of activities and the entry standards for ships are hard to control, which increases the difficulty of maintaining orderly competition.
During the process of improving the waterway, the concept of ecological protection is being implemented. Eco-friendly materials and structures are applied to minimize the impact on the environment in a bid to maintain a balance between regulation and protection.
Building green ports is an essential and effective method of waterway regulation. In conclusion, high standards should be maintained when new ports are built and old ones are upgraded. By regulating, integrating and upgrading existing ports, the functions of the shoreline are strengthened. The use of cleaner energy in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is also of great significance for the green future of the Yangtze channel. According to Fu, in terms of drybulk cargo, 50 freighters with 8,000 to 10,000 tons of LNG fleet suitable for the Yangtze will be built in the future to replace the existing 50 percent of the ship5s capacity, optimize the ship structure and reduce pollution to the environment.