>>1129267Large commercial vessels primarily burn what's called Heavy Fuel Oil when out at sea. This fuel is not heavily refined, has high sulfur content and produces a lot of sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide compounds when it is burned.
Cars burn a highly refined gasoline which produces almost no sulfur oxides or nitrogen oxides. Even trucks burn a highly refined highway diesel which must contain less than 15 parts per million of sulfur, so they too produce very few sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. Cars and trucks do produce quite a bit of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
So yes, the 15 biggest ships produce more sulfur oxide pollutants than all the cars in the world, because they run on completely different fuels. A ship produces more carbon dioxide emission per mile and per gallon of fuel than a car. Ships in general, however, have the lowest emission levels of any other method of cargo transport , producing fewer emissions per ton of freight per mile than barges, trains or trucks.
