A drone will be deployed in the sky of the port of Marseille in order to sniff out the sulfur content of the exhaust fumes from ferries and merchant ships. The objective is to ensure that the said boats, regularly denounced for the significant atmospheric pollution they cause, comply with the standards for sulfur emissions resulting from the combustion of their fuel.
The regulations provide that the exhaust fumes of the boats do not exceed 0.1% sulfur when they are at the quay and 0.5% at sea. This is the first time that such a control capacity has been deployed. The experiment will take place until December 23, 2022, said the State Secretariat for the Sea in a press release.
In the crosshairs of these controls is the entry into force by 2025 of the entry into force of the “Mediterranean emissions control area”, the date on which the maximum sulfur content of atmospheric emissions will be 0.1%, both on land and at sea.