Chase Studies of Particulate Emissions from in-use New York City Vehicles

Abstract

Emissions from motor vehicles are a significant source of fine particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants in urban environments. Few studies have characterized both gaseous and PM emissions from individual in-use vehicles under real-world driving conditions. Here we describe chase vehicle studies in which Received 27 February 2003; accepted 29 March 2004. This work was supported in part by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), contract # 4918ERT-ERES99; the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), cooperative agreement # R828060010; and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC), contract # C004210. Although the research described in this article has been funded in part by US EPA, it has not been subjected to the Agency's required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessary reflect the views of the Agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred. The authors thank the MTA for their cooperation, including Chris Bush for providing bus fleet information and Dana Lowell for help in organizing the logistics of the Fall 2000 campaign, the NYS DEC for providing drivers during the chase experiments, and Queens College for logistical support during the Summer 2001 campaign. The TILDAS scientists on-board the mobile laboratory, particularly Joanne Shorter and Mark Zahniser, are acknowledged for their assistance throughout the two phases of this study. Thanks also go to Jay Slowik and Leah Williams for help with laboratory soot experiments, Tim Onasch for assistance with the development of data analysis programs, and Paul Ziemann for useful discussions about organic mass spectral analysis. P. J. Silva thanks the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation for Support. D. A. Ghertner thanks Robert Harriss for providing funding for his involvement in this project.Address correspondence to Manjula R. Canagaratna, Center for Aerosol and Cloud Chemistry and Center for Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry, Aerodyne Research Inc., 45 Manning Road, Billerica, MA 01821, USA. E-mail: mrcana@aerodyne.com on-road emissions from individual vehicles were measured in real time within seconds of their emission. This work uses an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) to provide size-resolved and chemically resolved characterization of the nonrefractory portion of the emitted PM; refractory materials such as elemental carbon (EC) were not measured in this study. The AMS, together with other gas-phase and particle instrumentation, was deployed on the Aerodyne Research Inc. (ARI) mobile laboratory, which was used to "chase" the target vehicles. Tailpipe emission indices of the targeted vehicles were obtained by referencing the measured nonrefractory particulate mass loading to the instantaneous CO 2 measured simultaneously in the plume. During these studies, nonrefractory PM 1.0 (NRPM 1 ) emission indices for a representative fraction of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) bus fleet were determined. Diesel bus emissions ranged from 0.10 g NRPM 1...

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“…The authors ascribed that to both poor maintenance and the incompetent combustion of fuel or lubricant in motorcycles. Similar trends were also observed in California vehicles (Fruin et al 2004), New York vehicles (Canagaratna et al 2004), and Denmark vehicles (Ntziachristos et al 2000). Tang and Wang (2007) studied the impact of different urban forms, existing currently on the Macao Peninsula, on vehicle transport and street environment using various modeling systems.…”

Are Emissions of Black Carbon from Gasoline Vehicles Underestimated? Insights from Near and On-Road Measurements

“…36,37 Based on the onboard video, turbulence measurements, and NO x /CO ratios, distinct HDDV plumes were identified. These plumes were accompanied by large increases in BC, CO 2 , and other pollutants (Supporting Information).…”

Organic aerosol composition and sources in Pasadena, California, during the 2010 CalNex campaign

“…In contrast, the larger particles have an increasing inorganic contribution due to nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, and the non-EC refractory components. The AMS size distributions have a gradual cut of approximately PM 1 and can have a tail due to slow evaporating particles [Canagaratna et al, 2004] and should be interpreted accordingly. Also shown in Figure A1e are the PALMS size distributions, which feature a broad submicron mode that is dominated by the sulfate/ organic/nitrate particle type as well as a supermicron mode composed primarily of sea salt.…”