Air Toxic Emission Inventory for Mobile Source and Fuel Quality Modeling

Fuel quality and vehicle technologies are linked very intimately and have a combined effect on emission levels. Fuel quality improvement alone can reduce total pollution load from vehicles to a certain extent. A spreadsheet-based model has been developed in this study. The emission factor based on variations in gasoline quality has been derived using “Complex” model of US EPA. The annual emission inventory for gasoline driven vehicles have been estimated with respect to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), toxic air pollutants (TAP) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) using vehicle population data, growth rate of vehicles and usage characteristics in cities from Indian subcontinent. Five pollutants were considered in TAP category: benzene, 1,3-butadiene, policyclic organic matter, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde. The result of present and projected air toxic emission inventory using planned improvement in gasoline quality reveals that, the emission reduction less than 25% may be achieved. A significant reduction of about 69% in pollutant like benzene justifies the need of gasoline quality improvement in developing countries.