Tank cleaning and its impact on the marine environment
Tank cleaning is one of the least explored types of environmental impact from shipping and there are no comprehensive statistics available on which substances are released, in which concentrations and in how large volumes.
In addition, there is no comprehensive documentation about where and when tank cleaning is performed. At the same time, tank cleaning can pose a potentially significant burden on the marine environment. The background to the assignment was therefore the need for collective knowledge regarding tank cleaning from a Swedish marine environment management perspective.
This report has been produced by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, active in the Shipping Group at the Institute of Marine Environment. The Shipping Group's goal is to contribute to increased knowledge about the impact of shipping on the marine environment and to provide a basis for possible measures to reduce the load from shipping.
The report has been commissioned and financed by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management.
Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment Report No. 2022:6
Title: Tank cleaning and its impact on the marine environment.
Authors: Anna Lunde Hermansson and Ida-Maja Hassellöv, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Published in English: 19 August 2022
Publiched in Swedish: 3 July 2020 (Go to the Swedish version here)
Pages: 82 p
Recommended citation: Lunde Hermansson, A. and Hassellöv, I-M. (2022) Tank cleaning and its impact on the marine environment. Report no. 2022:06, Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment.