The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency will be using a remotely-controlled drone to measure the sulphur content in the ships' exhaust plumes.

The aircraft will take off from the German Armed Forces' Staberhuk site on the east coast of Fehmarn and fly over selected vessels operating in the Fehmarn Belt and the Kadetrinne/Kadetrenden.

The measurements will be made available in real-time to responsible authorities in all European ports via THETIS-EU (an EMSA-operated port state control information system) to select ships for inspection at their next port of call, including taking fuel samples. The examinations will verify a vessel’s compliance with the 0.10% cap of the Sulphur Emission Control Area.

In addition, the drone will take multispectral aerial imagery for hydrographic surveying.

The campaign will last three months, starting from April-end 2022.

The Norwegian company Nordic Unmanned will carry out the drone flights on behalf of EMSA.

The Danish Explicit ApS has supplied the sensor technology and analysis capabilities for emission measurements.

Photo: Nordic Unmanned