Robert Gehrig

The Policy Relevance of Wear Emissions from Road Transport, Now and in the Future—An International Workshop Report and Consensus Statement

Road transport emissions are a major contributor to ambient particulate matter concentrations and have been associated with adverse health effects. Therefore, these emissions are targeted through increasingly stringent European emission standards. These policies succeed in reducing exhaust emissions, but do not address “nonexhaust” emissions from brake wear, tire wear, road wear, and suspension in air of road dust. Is this a problem? To what extent do nonexhaust emissions contribute to ambient concentrations of PM10 or PM2.5? In the near future, wear emissions may dominate the remaining traffic-related PM10 emissions in Europe, mostly due to the steep decrease in PM exhaust emissions. This underlines the need to determine the relevance of the wear emissions as a contribution to the existing ambient PM concentrations, and the need to assess the health risks related to wear particles, which has not yet received much attention. During a workshop in 2011, available knowledge was reported and evaluated so as to draw conclusions on the relevance of traffic-related wear emissions for air quality policy development. On the basis of available evidence, which is briefly presented in this paper, it was concluded that nonexhaust emissions and in particular suspension in air of road dust are major contributors to exceedances at street locations of the PM10 air quality standards in various European cities. Furthermore, wear-related PM emissions that contain high concentrations of metals may (despite their limited contribution to the mass of nonexhaust emissions) cause significant health risks for the population, especially those living near intensely trafficked locations. To quantify the existing health risks, targeted research is required on wear emissions, their dispersion in urban areas, population exposure, and its effects on health. Such information will be crucial for environmental policymakers as an input for discussions on the need to develop control strategies. Implications: Road transport particulate matter (PM) emissions are associated with adverse health effects. Stringent policies succeed in reducing the exhaust PM emissions, but do not address “nonexhaust” emissions from brake wear, tire wear, road wear, and suspension in air of road dust. In the near future the nonexhaust emissions will dominate the road transport PM emissions. Based on the limited available evidence, it is argued that dedicated research is required on nonexhaust emissions and dispersion to urban areas from both an air quality and a public health perspective. The implicated message to regulators and policy makers is that road transport emissions continue to be an issue for health and air quality, despite the encouraging rapid decrease of tailpipe exhaust emissions. Supplemental Materials: Supplemental materials are available for this paper. Go to the publishers online edition of the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

Separate determination of PM10 emission factors of road traffic for tailpipe emissions and emissions from abrasion and resuspension processes

Little is known about the relevance of mechanically produced particles of road traffic from abrasion and resuspension processes in relation to the exhaust pipe particles. In this paper, emission factors of PM10 and PM1 for light and heavy-duty vehicles were derived for different representative traffic regimes from concentration differences of particles and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in ambient air upwind and downwind of busy roads, or alternatively of kerbsides and nearby background sites. Hereby, PM1 was interpreted as direct exhaust emissions and PM10-PM1 as mechanically produced emissions from abrasion and resuspension processes. The results show that abrasion and resuspension processes represent a significant part of the total primary PM10 emissions of road traffic. At sites with relatively undisturbed traffic flow they are in the same range as the exhaust pipe emissions. At sites with disturbed traffic flow due to traffic lights, emissions from abrasion/resuspension are even higher than those from the exhaust pipes.

Real-World Emission Factors for Antimony and Other Brake Wear Related Trace Elements: Size-Segregated Values for Light and Heavy Duty Vehicles

Hourly trace element measurements were performed in an urban street canyon and next to an interurban freeway in Switzerland during more than one month each, deploying a rotating drum impactor (RDI) and subsequent sample analysis by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (SR-XRF). Antimony and other brake wear associated elements were detected in three particle size ranges (2.5-10, 1-2.5, and 0.1-1 microm). The hourly measurements revealed that the effect of resuspended road dust has to be taken into account for the calculation of vehicle emission factors. Individual values for light and heavy duty vehicles were obtained for stop-and-go traffic in the urban street canyon. Mass based brake wear emissions were predominantly found in the coarse particle fraction. For antimony, determined emission factors were 11 +/- 7 and 86 +/- 42 microg km(-1) vehicle(-1) for light and heavy duty vehicles, respectively. Antimony emissions along the interurban freeway with free-flowing traffic were significantly lower. Relative patterns for brake wear related elements were very similar for both considered locations. Beside vehicle type specific brake wear emissions, road dust resuspension was found to be a dominant contributor of antimony in the street canyon.

A Thermophoretic Precipitator for the Representative Collection of Atmospheric Ultrafine Particles for Microscopic Analysis

In this article, the potential of a thermophoretic sampling device to derive quantitative particle size distributions and number concentrations of aerosols based on microscopic single particle analysis is explored. For that purpose a plate-to-plate thermophoretic precipitator to collect ultrafine atmospheric particles for TEM (transmission electron microscopy) analysis has been calibrated and characterized. The representativeness of the samples has been verified in a series of experiments. Results show that, for particles with diameters of 15 nm to 300 nm, the precipitators collection efficiency is independent of size, shape, and composition of the particles. Hence, its samples accurately represent the original aerosol. A numerical model of thermophoretic deposition within the device has been developed and tailored to the specifications of the precipitator. The model has been used to derive the particle number density and size distribution of several calibration aerosols using the TEM analysis of the samples taken with the thermophoretic precipitator as input parameters. The results agree very well with the on-line measurements of the calibration aerosols. This work demonstrates that our thermophoretic sampling device can be used to derive quantitative particle size distributions and number concentrations of ultrafine particles based on microscopic single particle analysis.

Contribution of road traffic to ambient fine particle concentrations (PM10) in Switzerland

A multivariate receptor model was applied to estimate the contribution of road traffic to ambient levels of fine particles (PM10) at different locations in Switzerland. At two roadside sites with heavy local traffic, the road traffic was found to account for 46% and 64% of PM10. At an urban background site, the estimated average road traffic contribution was 34%, whereas a slightly higher value was obtained at a suburban site (36%). These results are in agreement with the findings of a recent study, where a conceptually different approach (dispersion modelling) was applied.

Deposition Uniformity and Particle Size Distribution of Ambient Aerosol Collected with a Rotating Drum Impactor

Rotating drum impactors (RDI) are cascade type impactors used for size and time resolved aerosol sampling, mostly followed by spectrometric analysis of the deposited material. They are characterized by one rectangular nozzle per stage and are equipped with an automated stepping mechanism for the impaction wheels. An existing three-stage rotating drum impactor was modified, to obtain new midpoint cutoff diameters at 2.5 μm, 1 μm, and 0.1 μm, respectively. For RDI samples collected under ambient air conditions, information on the size-segregation and the spatial uniformity of the deposited particles are key factors for a reliable spectrometric analysis of the RDI deposits. Two aerodynamic particle sizers (APS) were used for the determination of the RDI size fractionation characteristics, using polydisperse laboratory room air as quasi-stable proxy for urban ambient air. This experimental approach was suitable for the scope of this study, but was subject to numerous boundary conditions that limit a general use. Aerodynamic stage penetration midpoint diameters were estimated to be 2.4 and 1.0 μm for the first two RDI stages. Additionally, the spatial uniformity and geometrical size distribution of the deposited aerosol were investigated using micro-focus synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (micro-SR-XRF) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The size distribution of the particles found on the TEM samples agreed well with the results from the APS experiments. The RDI deposits showed sufficient uniformity for subsequent spectrometric analysis, but in the 2.5–10 μm size range the particle area density was very low. All of the applied methods confirmed the theoretical cutoff values of the modified RDI and showed that compared to other cascade impactors, the determined stage penetration sharpness was rather broad for the individual impactor stages.

Detecting change in atmospheric ammonia following emission changes

The Working Group discussed the progress on the state of knowledge on deriving trends from measurements and their use to verify abatement measures or other causes for decrease in emissions of ammonia to the atmosphere. The conclusions from the 2000 Berne meeting (Menzi and Achermann 2001), the background review (Bleeker et al. 2008) and presentations during the session (Horvath et al. 2008 Tang et al. 2008; Webb et al. 2008), as well as the discussions served as input for the conclusions of this report. We have seen some clear advancement in closing the gap between the observed and expected values for reduced nitrogen, where we do get a better understanding of the reasons behind it. The long-term measurements that are available follow the emission trend. Current measurements make it possible to evaluate policy progress on ammonia emission abatement. Especially in those countries where there were big (>25%) changes in emissions, such as in the Netherlands and Denmark the trend is followed quite closely, especially when meteorology is well taken into account. In order countries, such as the UK, the trend was much smaller, but there was no gap between measurements and model estimates. In the Netherlands there still is an ammonia gap: a significant (30%) difference between emissions based ammonia concentrations and measurements. The trend is the same. The difference might be due to either an underestimation of the emission or an overestimation of the dry deposition. It is recommended to further explore this gap, especially by investigating the high temporal resolution measurements, improving the emission/deposition modeling, by having a model intercomparison with countries that use models that do not show a gap and finally by doing a thorough uncertainty analysis.