On-road emission characteristics of VOCs from diesel trucks in Beijing, China

Abstract

This paper is the first in our series of papers aimed at understanding the volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions of vehicles in Beijing by conducting on-board emission measurements. This paper focuses on diesel vehicles. In this work, 18 China III diesel vehicles, including seven light-duty diesel trucks (LDDTs), four medium-duty diesel trucks (MDDTs) and seven heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs), were examined when the vehicles were driven on predesigned fixed test routes in Beijing in China using a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). Tedlar bag sampling and 2,4-dinitrophenyhydrazine (DNPH) cartridge sampling were used to collect VOC species, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were used to analyze these samples. We obtained the VOC emission factors and relative compositions for diesel trucks of different sizes under different driving patterns. In total, 64 VOC species were quantified in this study, including 25 alkanes, four alkenes, 13 aromatics, 13 carbonyls and nine other compounds. The emission factors of the total VOCs based on mileage traveled for HDDTs were higher than those of LDDTs and MDDTs. Carbonyls, aromatics and alkanes were the dominant VOC species. Carbonyls accounted for 42.7%–69.2% of the total VOCs in the three types of tested diesel trucks. The total VOC emission factors of the tested vehicles that were driven on non-highway routes were 1.5–2.0 times higher than those of the vehicles driven on the highway. As for the OFP calculation results, with increased vehicle size, the ozone formation potential presented an increasing trend. Among the VOC components, carbonyls were the primary contributor to OFP. In addition, the OFPs under non-highway driving cycles were 1.3–1.7 times those under highway driving cycles. The results of this study will be helpful in improving our understanding of VOCs emitted from on-road diesel trucks in China.