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Effects of ambient temperature on regulated gaseous and particulate emissions from gasoline-, E10- and M15-fueled vehicles

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Abstract

Ambient temperature has substantial impacts on vehicle emissions, but the impacts may differ between traditional and alcohol gasolines. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of temperature on gaseous and particulate emissions with both traditional and alcohol gasoline. Regulated gaseous, particle mass (PM), particle number (PN) and black carbon (BC) emissions from typical passenger vehicles were separately quantified with gasoline, E10 (10% ethanol and 90% gasoline by volume) and M15 (15% methanol and 85% gasoline by volume) at both 30°C and −7°C. The particulate emissions with all fuels increased significantly with decreased temperature. The PM emissions with E10 were only 48.0%–50.7% of those with gasoline at 30°C but increased to 59.2%–79.4% at −7°C. The PM emissions with M15 were comparable to those with gasoline at 30°C, but at −7°C, the average PM emissions were higher than those with gasoline. The variation trend of PN emissions was similar to that of PM emissions with changes in the fuel and temperature. At 30°C, the BC emissions were lower with E10 and M15 than with gasoline in most cases, but E10 and M15 might emit more BC than gasoline at −7°C, especially M15. The results of the transient PN and BC emission rates show that particulate emissions were dominated mainly by those emitted during the cold-start moment. Overall, the particulate emissions with E10 and M15 were more easily affected by ambient temperature, and the advantages of E10 and M15 in controlling particulate emissions declined as the ambient temperature decreased.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21577135 and 51808507), the National Environmental Production Research Projects for Public Welfare of China (Grant No. 201409013), and the National Engineering Laboratory for Mobile Source Emission Control Technology (Grant No. NELMS2018A16). The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Jiajun Xu, Mr. Jianyi Ji and Mr. Yingnan Liu for their contributions in conducting the emissions tests for this study. The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsors.

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Correspondence to Jingnan Hu.

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Highlights

• Emissions from two sedans were tested with gasoline, E10 and M15 at 30°C and −7°C.

• As the temperature decreased, the PM, PN and BC emissions increased with all fuels.

• Particulate emissions with E10 and M15 were more sensitive to the temperature.

• The PN and BC generated during cold start-up dominated those over the WLTC.

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Zhu, R., Hu, J., He, L. et al. Effects of ambient temperature on regulated gaseous and particulate emissions from gasoline-, E10- and M15-fueled vehicles. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 15, 14 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1306-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1306-1

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