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Environmental Sustainability: Long Beach, Oakland, San Diego

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Long Beach Harbor Board OKs Incentive for Pollution-Control Testing

The Board of Long Beach Harbor Commissioners has approved an incentive program to reward shipping lines for taking part in testing of air pollution-control technology for vessels.

The first to benefit will be vessel operators participating in the Port of Long Beach demonstration of a barge-mounted emissions-capture system for ships at berth. By waiving the dockage fee, the port seeks to encourage vessel operators to participate in the testing of this barge-mounted system and other similar technology.

An estimated 40 vessel calls each year will be eligible for this incentive over the next two years. In addition to the incentive, the port’s Technology Advancement Program provides funding for inventors to test clean-air technology.

Shore power, which reduces air pollution by allowing docked ships to shut down shipboard engines and plug in for clean power, is installed at all of the port’s container shipping terminals. But there is also a need for at-berth emissions control when shore power is not feasible.

Currently, the barge-based "Advanced Maritime Emissions Control System," or AMECS, is undergoing testing at the port. The AMECS uses a 115-foot-high tower to connect to a ship and vacuum up emissions. The gases are sent through filters and scrubbers remove pollutants. The system is awaiting approval from state regulators to qualify as an alternative to shore power for container ships. It will also be tested on other types of cargo ships.

‘Dramatic Reductions’ in Emissions Found at Port of Oakland

Researchers say they've measured "dramatic reductions" in diesel emissions at the Port of Oakland. The result, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, should be cleaner air.

"At the Port of Oakland we measured reductions of nitrogen oxides and black carbon PM (particulate matter) which should translate into local improvements in air quality," said Berkeley Lab air quality scientist Dr. Thomas Kirchstetter in a Laboratory announcement released last week.

According to Dr. Kirchstetter, between 2009 and 2013:
  1. The median emission rate from diesel trucks operating at the port declined 76 percent for black carbon, a major portion of diesel particulate matter and a pollutant linked to global warming.
  2. The average emission rate for nitrogen oxides, which leads to the creation of ozone and particulate matter, went down 53 percent.
The Berkeley Lab findings indicate that a clean truck program initiated at the Port of Oakland in 2009 is paying off. The Comprehensive Truck Management Program requires harbor truckers to comply with state air quality regulations. It also bans rigs that do not meet 2007 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency engine emission standards. The port took part in a $22 million grant program to help drivers make their trucks compliant.
Dr. Kirchstetter’s research team noted two significant improvements in the truck fleet serving the port: 1) the average age of truck engines has declined from 11 to 6 years since 2009; and 2) the percentage of trucks equipped with particulate filters has increased from 2 percent to 99 percent.
Click here for the full announcement from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Port of San Diego Pioneers Technology for Energy, Cost Savings

The Port of San Diego will provide the first demonstration site in a series of regional public-private smart building initiatives led by local trade association Cleantech San Diego and a team of Internet of Things (IoT) technology providers to advance the region’s smart city goals.

The term "IoT" refers to intelligent machine-to-machine applications that use smart sensors to collect information from devices and systems to increase overall automation and efficiency.

As urban populations continue to grow, cities around the globe are looking to new technologies to help manage resources in a more sustainable and cost-effective manner. Combining end-to-end IoT gateway solutions provided by various companies, this smart building project uses sensors to detect energy consumption and translate it into easy-to-manage, real-time data for building operators at the Port of San Diego to act upon.

"The Port of San Diego will be the first demonstration site for these smart technologies to be tested, proven, and hopefully replicated regionally and beyond," said Port Board Chairman Bob Nelson. "The port is passionately committed to reducing our carbon footprint, and we are grateful to now have smart sensors, big data and predictive analytics as powerful tools in our arsenal toward achieving our greenhouse gas reduction goals."

How the smart building project works: Operating on a Dell platform, Intel Gateway Solutions for Internet of Things collect data from heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems at the Port of San Diego’s administration building. That data is then stored in a cloud-based system and translation by analytics software into a simple dashboard display that can be easily interpreted and acted upon by building operations managers.The data are also read by the power company’s, which allow for two-way communication between the building and the utility.

Data from the port administration building has been flowing through the new system since early October 2014 and are being publicly displayed on an 80-inch dashboard monitor located in the lobby of the building.

Technology providers involved in the smart building project donated the hardware, software, and services to the port in support of the region’s smart city leadership goals. The objectives of this collaboration are to demonstrate how the capture and use of data can reduce energy and save money and to encourage similar deployments in buildings and communities throughout the region.

The U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego is the second site to have installed IoT sensors for similar energy efficiency monitoring as part of the regional smart building initiative. Installations have begun and initial results of that deployment are expected later this month.

These smart building projects are part of the Smart City San Diego Regional Collaborative, led by Cleantech San Diego, which brings together public, private, and academic stakeholders to drive existing energy programs forward, identify new opportunities, embrace additional collaborators, and move the San Diego region into new horizons of sustainability. The primary goal of the regional initiative is to initiate energy efficiency pilot programs and share those successes and best practices with the goal of having them replicated across the region, the nation, and the globe.
 

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