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Highly light-absorbing particle emissions from low-sulfur marine fuels
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  • Published: 18 March 2026

Highly light-absorbing particle emissions from low-sulfur marine fuels

  • Tuukka Kokkola1,
  • Timothy A. Sipkens2,
  • Andreas Paul3 nAff12,
  • Deeksha Shukla4,5,
  • Mika Ihalainen1,
  • Anusmita Das4,5,
  • Jason Scott2,
  • Johannes Passig4,5,6,
  • Aleksandrs Kalamašņikovs4,5,6,
  • Uwe Etzien7,
  • Zheng Fang8,
  • Santtu Mikkonen1,
  • Anni Hartikainen1,
  • Viljami Luostari1,
  • Arya Mukherjee1,
  • Hendryk Czech4,5,
  • Martin Sklorz4,5,6,
  • Bert Buchholz7,
  • Thorsten Streibel4,5,
  • Thorsten Hohaus3,
  • Yinon Rudich8,
  • Johan Øvrevik9,10,
  • Ralf Zimmermann1,4,5,6,11,
  • Joel C. Corbin2 &
  • …
  • Olli Sippula1,11 

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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Subjects

  • Climate sciences
  • Environmental sciences

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) from marine traffic interacts with solar radiation and clouds, ultimately influencing Earth’s radiative balance. Ships operated with conventional fossil fuel oils emit light-absorbing carbonaceous PM that offsets aerosol-driven cooling and can even exert a net positive radiative forcing, i.e. warming effect. Radiative properties of PM are possibly further altered by atmospheric aging processes, the effects of which are not fully understood. We present black carbon (BC) emission factors (EF) and optical properties of fresh and photochemically aged particle emissions from a marine engine, operated using low-sulfur heavy fuel oil (LS-HFO) and marine gas oil (MGO), complying with recent maritime sulfur regulations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The fresh particle emissions comprised mostly BC, with average BC EFs of 144 and 43.2 mg/kWh for LS-HFO and MGO, respectively. Light absorption was mostly attributed to BC in particles from both fuels, with absorption Ångström exponent (AAE, 370 to 880 nm) values 0.9–1.0 (interquartile range), and 870 nm single scattering albedo (SSA) values 0.15–0.24 during the full cycles. Fresh LS-HFO emissions exhibited lower SSA values than those of high-sulfur fuels reported in literature, primarily associated with reduced sulfate emissions. Photochemical aging led to an absorption enhancement (Eabs) of 1.2–1.5 and an increase in SSA relative to fresh emissions, although SSA remained below 0.5, and the estimated direct radiative forcing effect stayed positive. Our results show that sulfur-compliant marine fuels can emit highly absorbing particles with an atmospheric warming potential, which is mostly maintained even after photochemical aging.

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Data availability

The main data is available in the online repository DOI:10.5281/zenodo.17344025. Particle mobility size distribution data from the same experiments has been published in Shukla et al. (2025), DOI:10.1039/d5ea00040h. Additional datasets associated with the study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 project ULTRHAS (project number 955390), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—SFB 1477 “Light-Matter Interactions at Interfaces” (project number 441234705), and Research Council of Finland “Black and Brown Carbon in the Atmosphere and the Cryosphere” (BBrCAC) (project number 341597) and “Competitive funding to strengthen university research profiles [PROFI] for the University of Eastern Finland” (project number 352968). Additional funding was provided by Transport Canada. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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Author notes

  1. Andreas Paul

    Present address: Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

    Tuukka Kokkola, Mika Ihalainen, Santtu Mikkonen, Anni Hartikainen, Viljami Luostari, Arya Mukherjee, Ralf Zimmermann & Olli Sippula

  2. Metrology Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Timothy A. Sipkens, Jason Scott & Joel C. Corbin

  3. Institute of Climate and Energy Systems: Troposphere (ICE-3), Forschungszentrum Juelich, Juelich, Germany

    Andreas Paul & Thorsten Hohaus

  4. Chair of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Deeksha Shukla, Anusmita Das, Johannes Passig, Aleksandrs Kalamašņikovs, Hendryk Czech, Martin Sklorz, Thorsten Streibel & Ralf Zimmermann

  5. Cooperation Group “Comprehensive Molecular Analytics”, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

    Deeksha Shukla, Anusmita Das, Johannes Passig, Aleksandrs Kalamašņikovs, Hendryk Czech, Martin Sklorz, Thorsten Streibel & Ralf Zimmermann

  6. Department Life, Light and Matter (LL&M), University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Johannes Passig, Aleksandrs Kalamašņikovs, Martin Sklorz & Ralf Zimmermann

  7. Chair of Piston Machines and Internal Combustion Engines (LKV), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Uwe Etzien & Bert Buchholz

  8. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Zheng Fang & Yinon Rudich

  9. Division of Climate and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

    Johan Øvrevik

  10. Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Johan Øvrevik

  11. Department of Chemistry, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Ralf Zimmermann & Olli Sippula

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Contributions

T.K., A.P., D.S., M.I., A.D., J.S., J.P., A.K., U.E., Z.F. and M.S. carried out the measurements. A.P. processed the data of the HR-ToF-AMS. J.P. processed the data of the SP-MS. T.K. processed the data of other online instruments. T.A.S. conducted the electron microscopy analyses. T.K., V.L. and A.M. performed the OC/EC and UV-vis analyses. T.K. and T.A.S. prepared the graphical figures. H.C., B.B., T.S., T.H., Y.R., J.Ø., R.Z., J.C.C. and O.S. acquired funding and supervised the work. T.K. wrote the main manuscript with inputs from T.A.S., A.P., D.S., M.I., J.P., S.M., A.H., J.C.C. and O.S. T.A.S., A.P., D.S., M.I., J.P., S.M., A.H., H.C., T.S., T.H., Y.R., R.Z., J.C.C. and O.S. reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tuukka Kokkola or Olli Sippula.

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Kokkola, T., Sipkens, T.A., Paul, A. et al. Highly light-absorbing particle emissions from low-sulfur marine fuels. npj Clim Atmos Sci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-026-01369-w

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  • Received: 15 October 2025

  • Accepted: 24 February 2026

  • Published: 18 March 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-026-01369-w

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