Black Carbon Emissions from Light-duty Passenger Vehicles Using Ethanol Blended Gasoline Fuels

Xuan Zheng,Xin Guo,Ye Wu,Liqiang He,Xian Wu

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2019.02.0095

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vehicular emissions of soot vary with the driving conditions and fuel properties. In 2017, China’s central government released a policy to promote ethanol blended gasoline fuels, and this policy will be rolled out nationwide in 2020. It is necessary to characterize the emission differences between traditional vehicular fuels used in China and ethanol blended fuels. In this study, black carbon (BC) emissions from three gasoline light-duty passenger vehicles (LDPVs) were measured using the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) . This study utilized three fuels, namely, two E10 fuels and a traditional gasoline (E0). The experimental results showed that the use of E10 blends (gasoline containing 10% ethanol) reduced BC emissions by 7–38%. Based on phase-separated analysis, BC emissions in the initial driving phase and the high-speed phase (e.g., the 1st ECE-15 phase in the NEDC and the extra-high speed phase in the WLTC) represented the majority (86–96%) of the total BC emissions, and the emission factors during the 1st ECE-15 phase (NEDC) and the low-speed phase (WLTC) were 0.36 mg km–1 and 0.37 mg km–1 lower, respectively, for the ethanol-blended fuels than the ethanol-free fuel. Furthermore, we found that using ethanol-blended fuels could reduce the mass concentration of the BC emitted during cold starts, which lasted 53–95 s for the tested vehicles, by 4.28 ± 4.19 mg km–1 and 2.06 ± 0.17 mg km–1 in the NEDC and the WLTC, respectively.

Highlights

With China’s economic development in recent decades, rapid motorization has been observed in many regions since 2000 (Wu et al, 2017)
We found that using ethanol-blended fuels could reduce the mass concentration of the black carbon (BC) emitted during cold starts, which lasted 53– 95 s for the tested vehicles, by 4.28 ± 4.19 mg km–1 and 2.06 ± 0.17 mg km–1 in the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC), respectively
Based on phase-separated analysis (Fig. 3), we find that the BC emissions in the initial driving phase and high-speed phase (i.e., 1st European urban driving cycle (ECE)-15 and extra-urban driving cycle (EUDC) in the NEDC and the low-speed and extra-high speed phases in WLTC) are much higher than those in the hot-running stage (i.e., 196–780 s in the NEDC and 490– 1478 s in the WLTC)

Summary

Introduction

With China’s economic development in recent decades, rapid motorization has been observed in many regions since 2000 (Wu et al, 2017). On-road vehicles have become one of the major sources of urban atmospheric pollution (Wang and Hao, 2012). In China, light-duty passenger vehicles (LDPVs) comprise the majority of the total vehicles (Wu et al, 2016), and the population of LDPVs reached 200 million for the first time in 2018 (MPS, 2018). Pollutant emissions from LDPVs and associated health impacts have created serious concerns to both governmental stakeholders and urban residents in China. The China 6b emission standard for light-duty vehicles will be implemented in 2023, which will tighten the emission limit of particle mass (PM) from. It is necessary to develop effective technologies and strategies for reducing the PM emissions from LDPVs

Methods

Results

Conclusion