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Vehicle emissions are a significant source of air pollution in cities. Particulate matter (PM) is a pollutant with adverse health effects. Regulations worldwide determine the PM exhaust emissions of vehicles by gravimetric quantification of the mass deposited on a filter over a test cycle. The introduction of particulate filters as vehicle exhaust gas aftertreatment devices led to low PM emissions. A particle number methodology (counting solid particles > 23 nm), complementary to the PM mass measurement, was developed by the PMP (Particle Measurement Programme) group of the GRPE (Working Party on Pollution and Energy) of the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) during the first decade of the 21st century. The methodology was then introduced in the EU (European Union) regulations for light-duty (2011), heavy-duty (2013), and non-road mobile machinery (2019). In parallel, during the last 15 years, UN (United Nations) regulations and GTRs (Global Technical Regulations) including this methodology were also developed. To address the on-road emissions, the EU introduced RDE (real-driving emissions) testing with PEMS (portable emissions measurement systems) in 2017. Other countries (e.g., China, India) have also started adopting the number methodology. The PMP group recently improved the current laboratory and on-board methodologies and also extended them to a lower particle size (counting solid particles > 10 nm). Due to the rapid evolution of the vehicle exhaust particle number regulations and the lack of a summary in the literature, this paper gives an overview of current and near future regulations. Emphasis is given on the technical specifications and the changes that have taken place over the years.

Gaseous emissions of modern Euro 6d vehicles, when tested within real driving emissions (RDE) boundaries, are, in most cases, at low levels. There are concerns, though, about their emission performance when tested at or above the boundaries of ambient and driving conditions requirements of RDE regulations. In this study, a Euro 6d-Temp gasoline direct injection (GDI) vehicle with three-way catalyst and gasoline particulate filter was tested on the road and in a laboratory at temperatures ranging between −30 °C and 50 °C, with cycles simulating urban congested traffic, uphill driving while towing a trailer at 85% of the vehicle’s maximum payload, and dynamic driving. The vehicle respected the Euro 6 emission limits, even though they were not applicable to the specific cycles, which were outside of the RDE environmental and trip boundary conditions. Most of the emissions were produced during cold starts and at low ambient temperatures. Heavy traffic, dynamic driving, and high payload were found to increase emissions depending on the pollutant. Even though this car was one of the lowest emitting cars found in the literature, the proposed future Euro 7 limits will require a further decrease in cold start emissions in order to ensure low emission levels under most ambient and driving conditions, particularly in urban environments. Nevertheless, motorway emissions will also have to be controlled well.

European regulation 2016/427 (the first package of the so-called Real-Driving Emissions (RDE) regulation) introduced on-road testing with Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) to complement the chassis dynamometer laboratory (Type I) test for the type approval of light-duty vehicles in the European Union since September 2017. The Not-To-Exceed (NTE) limit for a pollutant is the Type I test limit multiplied by a conformity factor that includes a margin for the additional measurement uncertainty of PEMS relative to standard laboratory equipment. The variability of measured results related to RDE trip design, vehicle operating conditions, and data evaluation remain outside of the uncertainty margin. The margins have to be reviewed annually (recital 10 of regulation 2016/646). This paper lays out the framework used for the first review of the NOx margin, which is also applicable to future margin reviews. Based on experimental data received from the stakeholders of the RDE technical working group in 2017, two NOx margin scenarios of 0.24–0.43 were calculated, accounting for different assumptions of possible zero drift behaviour of the PEMS during the tests. The reduced uncertainty margin compared to the one foreseen for 2020 (0.5) reflects the technical improvement of PEMS over the past few years., Graphical abstract fx1, Highlights • Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) are used to measure Real-Driving Emissions (RDE) of vehicles. • The uncertainty of PEMS was evaluated based on experimental data and technical requirements prescribed in the European regulation. • The 2017 uncertainty estimation was 43%.

The particulate matter (PM) emissions of gasoline vehicles were much lower than those of diesel vehicles until the introduction of diesel particulate filters (DPFs) in the early 2000s. At the same time, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines started to become popular in the market due to their improved efficiency over port fuel injection (PFI) ones. However, the PM mass and number emissions of GDI vehicles were higher than their PFI counterparts and diesel ones equipped with DPFs. Stringent PM mass levels and the introduction of particle number limits for GDI vehicles in the European Union (EU) resulted in significant PM reductions. The EU requirement to fulfill the proposed limits on the road resulted to the introduction of gasoline particulate filters (GPFs) in EU GDI models. This review summarizes the evolution of PM mass emissions from gasoline vehicles placed in the market from early 1990s until 2019 in different parts of the world. The analysis then extends to total and nonvolatile particle number emissions. Care is given to reveal the impact of ambient temperature on emission levels. The discussion tries to provide scientific input to the following policy-relevant questions. Whether particle number limits should be extended to gasoline PFI vehicles, whether the lower limit of 23 nm for particle number measurements should be decreased to 10 nm, and whether low ambient temperature tests for PM should be included.

Combustion experiments conducted in domestic stove burning hard coal demonstrated a predominant influence of the coal chlorine content on the PCDD/F emissions, together with a pronounced effect of the flue gas temperature. PCDD/F concentrations of over 100 ng TEQ/m3, three orders of magnitude higher than in a modern waste incinerator, were measured in the flue gases of a domestic stove when combusting high chlorine coal (0.31 %). The PCDD/F concentrations in the flue gases dropped below 0,5 ng TEQ/m3, when low chlorine coal (0.07 %) was used. When low chlorine coal was impregnated with NaCl to obtain 0.38 % chlorine content, the emission of the PCDD/Fs increased by two orders of magnitude. Pronounced nonlinearity of the PCDD/F concentrations related to chlorine content in the coal was observed. The combustion of the high chlorine coal yielded PCDD/F concentrations in flue gases one order of magnitude lower in a fan cooled chimney when compared to an insulated one, thus indicating formation in the chimney. The influence of flue gas temperature on the PCDD/F emissions was less pronounced when burning low chlorine coal. The predominant pathway of the PCDD/F emissions is via flue gases, 99 % of the TEQ in the case of the high chlorine coal for insulated chimney.

In-use fuel consumption data of 924 passenger cars (611 petrol, 313 diesel) were collected from various European sources and were evaluated in comparison to their corresponding type-approval values. The analysis indicated that the average in-use fuel consumption was higher than the type-approval one by 11% for petrol cars and 16% for diesel cars. Comparison of this dataset with the Travelcard database in the Netherlands showed that the deviation increased for late model years and in particular for cars with low type-approval values. The deviation was higher than 60% for vehicles registered in 2012 within the 90–100 gCO 2 /km bin. Unrealistic vehicle resistances used in type-approval were identified as one of the prime reasons of the difference. A simplified linear model developed in the study may be used to predict in-use fuel consumption based on data publicly available. The model utilizes the fuel consumption measured in type-approval, the mass, and the engine capacity to provide in-use fuel consumption. This may be either used to correct fuel consumption factors currently utilized by emission models (e.g. COPERT, HBEFA, VERSIT+, and others) or could be used independently to make projections on how fuel consumption may develop on the basis of changing future passenger cars characteristics.

Portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS) for gaseous pollutants were firstly introduced in the United States regulation to check the in-use compliance of heavy-duty engines, avoiding the high costs of removing the engine and testing it on a dynamometer in the laboratory. In Europe, the in-service conformity of heavy-duty engines has been checked with PEMS for gaseous pollutants since 2014. To strengthen emissions regulations with a view to minimise the differences between on-road and laboratory emission levels in some cases, PEMS testing, including solid particle number (SPN), was introduced for the type-approval of light-duty vehicles in Europe in 2017 and for in-service conformity in 2019. SPN-PEMS for heavy-duty engines will be introduced in 2021. This paper gives an overview of the studies for SPN-PEMS from early 2013 with the first prototypes until the latest testing and improvements in 2019. The first prototype diffusion charger (DC) based systems had high differences from the reference laboratory systems at the first light-duty vehicles campaign. Tightening of the technical requirements and improvements from the instrument manufacturers resulted in differences of around 50%. Similar differences were found in an inter-laboratory comparison exercise with the best performing DC- and CPC- (condensation particle counter) based system. The heavy-duty evaluation phase at a single lab and later at various European laboratories revealed higher differences due to the small size of the urea generated particles and their high charge at elevated temperatures. This issue, along with robustness at low ambient temperatures, was addressed by the instrument manufacturers bringing the measurement uncertainty to the 50% levels. This measurement uncertainty needs to be considered at the on-road emission results measured with PEMS.

Pollutant emissions need to be accurately estimated to ensure that air quality plans are designed and implemented appropriately. Emission factors (EFs) are empirical functional relations between pollutant emissions and the activity that causes them. In this review article, the techniques used to measure road vehicle emissions are examined in relation to the development of EFs found in emission models used to produce emission inventories. The emission measurement techniques covered include those most widely used for road vehicle emissions data collection, namely chassis and engine dynamometer measurements, remote sensing, road tunnel studies and portable emission measurements systems (PEMS). The main advantages and disadvantages of each method with regards to emissions modelling are presented. A review of the ways in which EFs may be derived from test data is also performed, with a clear distinction between data obtained under controlled conditions (engine and chassis dynamometer measurements using standard driving cycles) and measurements under real-world operation.

This paper discusses the development and validation of passenger car emission factors, using real world operation data. In total, six passenger cars of different technologies were studied. The tested vehicles were operated under various driving conditions and over two different routes in the region of Lombardia, Italy. These routes were specifically defined in order to provide a range of driving conditions, including urban, rural and highway driving. Tailpipe emissions and exhaust gas flows were measured on-board the vehicle, using a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). In addition, all vehicles were tested over the European type-approval driving cycle (NEDC) with the same PEMS equipment. The testing of gasoline vehicles showed that emissions are well below the emission standards and do not raise any concern. However, the testing of diesel vehicles both under real-world driving conditions and over the NEDC brought to the surface important concerns regarding the actual NOx emissions of modern diesel vehicles, since they seem to comply with the corresponding emission standard over the type-approval cycle, but they constantly exceed the specified limit when tested under real-world driving conditions. Results from real-world operation revealed that there is a significant deviation from the NOx emission standard limit (especially for the newly introduced Euro 5 technology). These observations raise concerns regarding the actual NOx emissions of modern vehicles and their impact on urban air-quality. The emission factors originally measured on the road are also compared to the corresponding COPERT average speed emission factors. In general, emissions of CO2, THC and CO correlate fairly well with COPERT, for all vehicles. In the case of NOx emissions, emission levels of the two tested Euro 5 diesel passenger cars are consistently higher in urban, rural, and highway driving compared to the corresponding COPERT emission factor. Thus, leading to the conclusion that more experimental data are necessary, especially for post-Euro 4 compliant diesel vehicles of different engine capacities particularly when it comes to NOx emissions from diesel vehicles.

Τhe European passenger car certification test constitutes the basis for implementation and progress monitoring of the current CO 2 abatement policy. The certification test is performed over a single driving cycle, (New European Driving Cycle-NEDC). The dynamics of NEDC and the fact that it does not account for other factors results in CO 2 emissions which are non-representative of real-world performance. Using available data from the CO 2 monitoring database and literature and employing simple vehicle dynamics model and stochastic techniques, this paper attempts to calculate the average gasoline and diesel passenger car characteristics, investigate how the evolution of certain vehicle characteristics affects real world vehicle performance and to combine the above in order to evaluate the progress in terms of real world emissions and possible correction of existing emission factors. The analysis reveals that reductions over NEDC are generally reflected over real world. There were indications particularly for diesel vehicles that the NEDC—real world CO 2 emissions gap gradually widens and that existing emission factors should be amended accordingly. Currently this difference between certification and real world emission is estimated between 20 and 25%. The benefit of diesel vehicles compared to their gasoline equivalents in terms of CO 2 emissions appears to reduce.

In 2011, the European Commission introduced a limit for nonvolatile particle number (PN) emissions >23 nm from light-duty (LD) vehicles and the stated intent is to implement similar legislation for on-road heavy-duty (HD) engines at the next legislative stage. This paper reviews the recent literature regarding the operation-dependent emission of PN from LD vehicles and HD engines, and the measurement procedure used for regulatory purposes. The repeatability of the PN method is of the order of 5% and higher scatter of the results can easily be explained by the effect of the vehicles or the aftertreatment devices on the PN emissions (e.g., the fill state of the diesel particulate filters). Reproducibility remains an issue since it may exceed 30%. These high-variability levels are mainly associated with calibration uncertainties of the PN instruments. Correlation measurements between the full-flow dilution tunnels (constant-volume samplers, CVS) and the proportional partial-flow dilution systems (PFDS) showe...

The European Research Group on Mobile Emission Sources (ERMES) is an open interest group that brings together European transport emission modelers and other stakeholders under the coordination of the European Commission Joint Research Centre. ERMES oversees the development of the leading road vehicle emission models in Europe (COPERT and HBEFA). This paper provides insight into a selection of current ERMES research issues (the development of emission factors for newer technology vehicles, the creation of tools for emissions data post-processing and the support to the monitoring of long-term emission reduction targets) that impact the estimation of road vehicle emissions in Europe.

A Euro 4 Light-Duty Diesel vehicle equipped with a diesel particulate filter (DPF) was circulated to 9 labs where repetitions of the current regulatory New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) were conducte...

Milk and milk products have shown to be good indicator samples for the contamination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) along the food chain. To gather information on whether exposure to dioxins and PCBs might cause a problem in countries about to join the European Union in 2004 or later, a study for evaluation of dioxin and levels of PCBs in 16 butter samples from eight countries (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia) was performed. Comprehensive quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) was requested. For this, eight quality control samples were included (in comparison to long-term mean, mean recovery for WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ of 97.9% with a CV of 3.0%, mean recovery for WHO-PCB-TEQ of 100.4% with a CV of 3.3%). Additionally, all butter samples were run as duplicates resulting in a confidence region of 95% statistical certainty of 4.6% for WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ and of 3.5% for WHO-PCB-TEQ. All samples except one from Romania were in the range of 0.21–0.59 pg WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ/g fat (upper bound), all samples except one from Romania and one from Estonia in the range of 0.32–0.82 pg WHO-PCB-TEQ/g fat (upper bound) and all samples except one from Romania and one from Estonia in the range of 0.57–1.23 pg sum WHO-TEQ/g fat (upper bound). The maximum values were found in samples from Romania (0.98 pg WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ/g fat; 1.75 pg WHO-PCB-TEQ/g fat) and Estonia (0.26 pg WHO-PCDD/F-TEQ/g fat; 1.62 pg WHO-PCB-TEQ/g fat). As a conclusion, all samples except one from Romania and one from Estonia were in the range of the actual low background contamination for PCDD/F and dioxin-like PCBs. The samples with elevated concentrations were below the EU action and maximum levels which have been valid since 2002, or will be applied from November 2006. In all samples except in one from Estonia, the contribution of dioxin-like PCBs to sum WHO-TEQ was 47–68% which reflects the usual range in Europe. In one sample from Estonia this contribution was 86% which points to a particular yet unknown PCB source. Thirty eight PCB congeners were determined allowing a detailed discussion of the relative contribution of individual congeners to the total PCB concentration. Correlation between PCB 153 and WHO-PCB-TEQ varied considerably between samples from different countries. Major tetra- or pentachlorinated mono-ortho PCBs without assigned TEFs were PCBs 60, 66, 74, and 110.

Due to the diversity of Heavy Duty Vehicles (HDV), the European CO2 and fuel consumption monitoring methodology for HDVs will be based on a combination of component testing and vehicle simulation. In this context, one of the key input parameters that need to be accurately defined for achieving a representative and accurate fuel consumption simulation is the vehicle's aerodynamic drag. A highly repeatable, accurate and sensitive measurement methodology was needed, in order to capture small differences in the aerodynamic characteristics of different vehicle bodies. A measurement methodology is proposed which is based on constant speed measurements on a test track, the use of torque measurement systems and wind speed measurement. In order to support the development and evaluation of the proposed approach, a series of experiments were conducted on 2 different trucks, a Daimler 40 ton truck with a semi-trailer and a DAF 18 ton rigid truck. Two different torque measurement systems (wheel rim torque sensors and half shaft torque sensors) were used for the measurements and two different vehicle tracking approaches were investigated (high precision GPS and opto-electronic barriers). Results were pooled and compared against results from similar measurements performed by the OEMs at their own proving grounds. The method was proven to be accurate. The analysis showed good repeatability and reproducibility characteristics and a good sensitivity of the method. Based on the findings it was decided that this measurement methodology is suitable and can be included in the European legislation., JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transport

The recent introduction of a Particle Number (PN) limit of 6×1011 #/km for all Direct Injection Gasoline (G-DI) vehicles registered in Europe after September 2017, is expected to necessitate a widespread application of Gasoline Particulate Filters (GPF). It is therefore important to assess whether the associated implementation costs can be justified on the basis of the societal benefits. Monetary valuation of externalities originating from the reduction of PN and Black Carbon (BC) emissions, accounting for any fuel consumption and CO2 penalties, provided evidence that a GPF installation can be a cost effective solution. Emission projections up to 2030, revealed that the three years delay in the implementation year, will introduce a relatively limited burden on the future air quality, owing to the currently limited population of G-DIs, JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transport

Gas operated vehicles powered by natural gas (NG) or other gaseous fuels such liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), are seen as a possible option for curbing CO2 emissions, fuel consumption and operating costs of goods and passenger transport. Initiatives have been adopted by various public organizations in Europe and abroad in order to introduce gas fueled vehicles in their fleets or use retrofit fueling systems in existing ones. In this study a retrofit dual fuel (diesel-gas) fuelling system was investigated as a potential candidate technology for city bus fleets. The system is marketed under the commercial name d-gid. It is a platform developed by the company Ecomotive Solutions for the control and management of a diesel engine fuelled with a mixture of gaseous fuels. In order to assess its environmental and cost effectiveness the system was tested on a Volvo city bus. The tests were performed on an HDV chassis dyno under various driving conditions. Fuels used were EN590 diesel fuel and EN589 LPG. Regulated pollutant emissions were measured including CO2, CO. THC, CH4, non methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), PM, NOx and Particle Number. Diesel fuel flow was also recorded. Vehicle simulation was performed using the PHEM simulation software to simulate more realistic operation. Results indicated small differences in exhaust emissions. Benefits were observed for PM and the emission levels of non methane hydrocarbons were increased. Minor reductions (up to 2%) were observed for CO2. Under low load conditions the gas fuelling system has only little contribution to engine fuelling. Under medium and high load operating condition the system manages to substitute part of the conventional diesel with LPG. Simulations indicated that a substitution of diesel fuel with LPG of around 21% is achievable over realistic operation., JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transport

The contribution of residential wood combustion (RWC) to emission inventory at local level was estimated using a bottom–up approach for the Lombardy Region of North Italy. A survey, based on the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) method, has been undertaken through 18,000 interviews. The interviews had the objective to characterize the RWC use in this region, in term of both total and municipal wood consumption. Details on the type of appliances used in RWC were also gathered. The results of the survey were then statistically analyzed in order to allow an estimate of RWC with high spatial resolution (i.e., at municipal level) in relation to the size and altitude of the territory. The work provides new evidence of the importance of wood combustion as a key source for PM and NMVOC emissions at local level, and thus highlights the importance of technological improvements and new policies aimed at emission reduction in this sector. Considering the great differences in average PM emission factors between low efficiency appliances (fireplaces, old stoves) and high efficiency ones (new stoves, pellet burners), this work emphasizes the importance of obtaining more detailed information on the types of wood appliances used for arriving at a reliable PM emission inventory for RWC.

Very high previous termemissions of PCDD/next termFs up to 1300 μg TEQ per ton of previous termcoalnext term were measured during combustion of commercial high chlorine content previous termcoalnext term in a previous termstove.next term A pronounced effect of the temperature profile in the chimney on previous termPCDD/F emissionsnext term was identified, suggesting formation in the chimney. previous termEmissions of PCDD/next termFs were one order of magnitude higher with an insulated chimney than with a non-insulated one. Insulation of the chimney did not influence the previous termemissionsnext term of regulated pollutants and PAHs. Under laboratory conditions, the thermal properties of the chimney usually differ from those in residential dwellings. For that reason it is concluded that previous termPCDD/F emission measurementsnext term performed under laboratory conditions may not be representative for derivation of previous termemissionnext term factors in previous termemissionnext term inventory compilations. Thus the previous termemissionnext term factor of 1300 μg TEQ per ton of previous termcoalnext term (40 000 μg TEQ/TJ) represents the maximum value for individual previous termstove emissions.next term Complementary previous termairnext term dispersion previous termmodellingnext term and congener profile based receptor previous termmodellingnext term performed in the Krakow area, Poland confirm a high contribution of the residential combustion to the previous termambient air PCDD/F levelsnext term in that area and indicate an previous termemissionnext term factor for previous termcoalnext term combustion in previous termstovesnext term in the order of 100 μg TEQ per ton (3000 μg TEQ/TJ).

COPERT is used by 22 out of the EU27 member states for the official submission of road transport inventories to international conventions. This study aimed at quantifying the uncertainty of road transport inventories in the case of two countries that use COPERT. The uncertainty of the emission factors was quantified by analysis of the variance in the relevant experimental information used to develop the emission factors. The uncertainty in the input data was determined by comparing information from different national and international sources. In this process, the sensitivity of the model output to its inherent parameters and the input variables was quantified. This provides useful guidance on how to reduce the uncertainty of the inventory.