Air quality and engine emission at Paris CDG airport during AIRPUR field campaigns

Abstract

Intensive air quality measurements have been organised at Paris Charles de Gaulle airports to characterise source emissions: NO, NO2, speciated VOC, CO, and for aerosols particles including soot and to investigate the influence of emissions on air quality. Chemical samplers, GC and laser techniques have been used to perform gas monitoring by in-situ or by remote sensing at different locations at the airports. Particulate matters have been measured by ELPI, SMPS, TEOM PM1-PM10. Instruments have been deployed at aprons, beside taxiways and runways, at engine test areas, along roads, and at airport landscapes. Samplings performed inside engine plumes for different power settings show a maximum in number of ultra-fine volatile particles (7–10 nm diameter) whereas the concentration of the soot mode (20–40 nm) is at a factor of 100 lower. TEM filter samplings have been continuously operated and show the presence of aggregated soot (20–40 nm) and aerosols containing some proportion of S, Si, Fe, Ca, Mg, and K. VOC emission indices indicate a maximum for ethyne, propene, ethene, benzene, toluene, m-p-xylene, nonane and 1-3butadiene. Results show that NO2 is highly produced at lower power settings than NO, which dominates the emission at higher thrust setting. Summertime measurements depicting high air temperature lead to a high concentration of ozone. Nevertheless, the airport maximums were lower than observed in the vicinities of the airports and in Paris city at the same period. Air sampling from take-off engine plumes shows a larger concentration of NOx and aerosol particle number concentration. Background values near runways are low, transient variations are strongly dependent on change-over operations of runways (westerly or easterly in CDG).