The human cost of atmospheric pollution from shipping is estimated at 400,000 premature deaths each year and the cause of asthma in 14 million children. There are currently no methods for detecting illegal polluters at sea. LoserShips is a system for global real-time monitoring of shipping emissions to detect non-compliance of fuel quality regulations. This will be a low-cost solution relying on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to match Sentinel-5P data with the AIS system of ship locations.
In 2020, tougher regulation on fuel quality will cost the shipping industry an estimated USD 60 billion annually. An ‘alliance of the willing’, good companies paying extra for the cleaner fuel, will be keen to reduce non-compliance to avoid being undercut. The Sentinel-5P has been launched at just the right time.
SO2 detected by satellite in 2014, © Dan Jane
Customer benefits
The health impact is obvious. Moreover, in 2020 tougher regulation will cost the shipping industry an estimated USD 60 billion per year. One business model will approach the beneficiaries to fund USD 500,000 for a 2% increase in the compliance rate (measurable), which to them would be worth USD 1 billion.
Expertise
“Ship emissions contribute substantially to air pollution. Therefore, using Sentinel-5P data to identify the most serious polluters on the open seas is a great idea to help achieve cleaner air in the long term.” – Gunter Schreier, Deputy Director German Remote Sensing Data Center, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Dr Dan Jane
