Highly Resolved Composition during Diesel Evaporation with Modeled Ozone and Secondary Aerosol Formation: Insights into Pollutant Formation from Evaporative Intermediate Volatility Organic Compound Sources

As stricter regulations continue to reduce vehicular emissions, other emission sources such as evaporative emissions from road building and volatile consumer products have become more important in overall pollutant forming emissions in many urban areas. Emission regulations have historically targeted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to reduce ozone, but intermediate volatility organic compounds (IVOCs) also contribute to ozone formation and the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) that often dominates fine particulate matter. Emission rates and pollutant formation from IVOCs are not well constrained in current inventories and models. This study uses diesel fuel as a representative IVOC mixture in evaporation tests performed in a wind tunnel under varying wind speeds and liquid diesel temperatures. Comprehensive composition measurements guided the development of a model to determine rates of evaporation and estimate pollutant production. Results show that reducing IVOC emissions can result in significant reductions in ozone formation, in addition to the expected reductions in SOA formation, and that IVOC emissions can continue over the course of a month. Ozone formation from IVOC emissions is equal to that from VOCs after 3 days of evaporation at 0.65 g-ozone/g-diesel released. SOA formation is dominated by IVOCs, reaching 0.2 g-SOA/g-diesel released after 30 days.

Automated summary

As vehicle emissions decrease due to stricter regulations, other sources of emissions such as road building and consumer product evaporation have become more significant in overall pollutant formation in urban areas. This study demonstrates that reducing IVOC emissions can lead to significant reductions in ozone and SOA formation, with IVOC emissions having a long-lasting impact on SOA formation.