Methane, benzene and alkyl benzene cold start emission data of gasoline-driven passenger cars representing the vehicle technology of the last two decades

The US urban driving cycle (FTP-75) is widely used to estimate both the emissions under hot engine conditions as well as those associated with the cold start. Applying fast analysis techniques such as chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CI-MS) the warm-up behavior of individual vehicles can be monitored at a time resolution of 1 s. CI-MS has been used to investigate the emissions of methane, benzene and the alkyl benzene class of compounds. The amount of the emissions at cold start influence was deduced from the time-resolved emission data of four gasoline-driven vehicle classes representing the vehicle technology of the last two decades. Overall, the emissions of five EURO-0, 20 EURO-1, 18 EURO-2 and so far of six EURO-3 passenger cars were recorded. The test vehicles were selected from the currently operating Swiss car fleet based on the car sales statistics. The average methane, benzene and alkyl benzene cold start emissions are reported using both, the traditional bag method as well as the regression model. At room temperature a clear reduction of 94%, 81% and 85% was found for the methane, benzene and alkyl benzene cold start emissions from EURO-0 to EURO-3 technology, respectively. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.