Denmark deploys drone to monitor sulfur emissions from shipping

The Danish shipping authority will deploy a large drone in the coming months to check whether ships comply with legal limits on sulfur emissions in certain Danish waters. In the summer of this year, the drone will also be deployed over the Channel.

The special drone, made available by the European Maritime Safety Agency, is equipped with equipment to measure sulfur emissions. Based on the exhaust gases from ships, in which the drone will hang, the device can register the amount of sulfur in the fuel. The drone already completed its first sulfur mission last week and should map emissions in the coming months, writes the Danish Maritime Authority.

The drone is a Skeldar V-200 from manufacturer Saab and will be deployed at the Great Belt, a place where many large oil tankers sail to and from the Baltic Sea, Rask Nielsen of the Danish authority explains to Dronewatch. A license has been issued for flying the drone to fly up to 50 km from the ground station, although a limit of 20 km is maintained for flying without the drone still in view.

According to Nielsen, multiple ships can be checked during a flight; a measurement takes between five and ten minutes and the drone keeps at least one hundred meters away from a ship. Nielsen says the shipping authority can intervene immediately if excessive emissions are measured. The drone can find the ships using an AIS receiver and flies autonomously, although a human pilot takes over as soon as a ship is reached.

In addition to a sensor to measure sulfur emissions, the drone also has a normal camera and an infrared camera for photographing the ships. All told, the kerosene-flying drone weighs 235kg and can stay in the air for up to four hours.