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Evergreen Ships First to Assist in International Project to Measure and Monitor Greenhouse Gases Over Oceans

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 July 2009, 10:32 CDT

TAIWAN, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its goal to retain a leadership role in ensuring a sustainable maritime industry, an Evergreen Marine Corp. container ship set sail Saturday as part of an ambitious project to measure and monitor the distribution of greenhouse gases in the Pacific Ocean. The EVER ULTRA is the first commercial marine vessel equipped to measure marine hydrocarbon and halocarbon emissions and is part of an international Pacific Greenhouse Gases Measurement (PGGM) project.

Taiwanese scientists at National Central University with the cooperation of Evergreen Marine Corp., the National Science Council (NSC), the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the University of Cambridge initiated the PGGM project in 2008. The project will combine data from Taiwan's FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellite. The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC program is an international collaboration between Taiwan and the United States that uses a constellation of six remote sensing micro-satellites to collect atmospheric data for weather prediction and for ionosphere, climate and gravity research.

The US$70 million 980-foot-long vessel 5364 TEU Ever Ultra, which departed Saturday from the newly built Taipei Port destined for the Persian Gulf, is the first of three Evergreen ships that will participate in the project, with the second scheduled to sail to the Atlantic July 24, according to NCU.

Wang Kuo-ying, director of NCU's Center for Environmental Studies, said prior to the Ever Ultra's launch that the project would for the first time generate invaluable data from in-service container ships and aircraft, as opposed to fixed measurement stations. "This is an unprecedented effort that will over the next 20 years observe the global distribution of greenhouse gases, which will put Taiwan's greenhouse gas observation on the same track as international studies," Wang said.

K.W. Nieh, Evergreen Group spokesman, said: "The Evergreen Group is committed to playing its part in the battle to restrict global warming. Striking a balance between providing transport services and being environmentally sensitive is not easy but Evergreen's strong sense of social responsibility will ensure that the company will seriously consider every possible way of minimizing the industry's and its own global footprint. This will also enable its customers to develop greener supply chain systems."

Evergreen's S-type "Greenships" were the first to incorporate many new environmental features well beyond current international environmental requirements. These include a double-skinned hull with all fuel tanks situated within the transverse bulkhead spaces, thus minimizing the risk of oil pollution or fire as a result of grounding or collision. A high-capacity oily water separator enables the oil content of wastewater to be reduced to just 15ppm. Larger separator bilge oil and bilge oil holding tanks provide more storage capacity, enabling Greenships to maximize the amount of waste that can be held for ultimate disposal in specialized shore facilities.

Of the project--touted as a sign of Taiwan's determination to join international forces in battling global warming, Wang said, "This is the best present that Taiwan can give to the world."

The PGGM project will also collaborate with the European Union's In-Service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) project to install instruments on commercial aircraft to monitor atmospheric composition and aerosols and gather data.

SOURCE Evergreen Marine Corp.

Source: PR Newswire

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