Contribution of evaporative emissions from gasoline vehicles toward total VOC emissions in Japan

Abstract

The features of evaporative emissions from gasoline vehicles were examined. One potential source of evaporative emissions is mainly the so-called sigh of a fuel tank, which is a function of the daily temperature change and the volume not occupied by fuel. A theoretical equation was proposed for estimating the fuel vapor generation. It reproduced observed features well but underestimated the absolute values obtained in the experimental results. The widely used semi-empirical Reddy equation overestimates the results. The performance of a carbon canister was also evaluated. More than 95% of fuel vapor generation was trapped by the carbon canister. However, the canister worked for only one day because it adsorbed more VOC than that contained in the sigh alone. To estimate the evaporative emissions in the real world, the fuel tank temperature change while a car was parked in an outside car park was monitored and was found to be almost the same as the change in ambient air temperature; no other weather conditions had any effect. According to the findings in this study and data on frequency of car use, the annual amount of evaporative emissions from gasoline vehicles in Japan was estimated to be 4.6% of the total VOC emissions in Japan, making it the 6th-highest source of VOC.