Engine maps of fuel use and emissions from transient driving cycles

Air pollution problems persist in many cities throughout the world, despite drastic reductions in regulated emissions of criteria pollutants from vehicles when tested on standardised driving cycles. New vehicle emissions regulations in the European Union and United States require the use of OBD and portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS) to confirm vehicles meet specified limits during on-road operation. The resultant in-use testing will yield a large amount of OBD and PEMS data across a range of vehicles. If used properly, the availability of OBD and PEMS data could enable greater insight into the nature of real-world emissions and allow detailed modelling of vehicle energy use and emissions. This paper presents a methodology to use this data to create engine maps of fuel use and emissions of nitrous oxides (NO$_x$), carbon dioxide (CO$_2$) and carbon monoxide (CO). Effective gear ratios, gearbox shift envelopes, candidate engine maps and a set of vehicle configurations are simulated over driving cycles using the ADVISOR powertrain simulation tool. This method is demonstrated on three vehicles – one truck and two passenger cars – tested on a vehicle dynamometer and one driven with a PEMS. The optimum vehicle configuration and associated maps were able to reproduce the shape and magnitude of observed fuel use and emissions on a per second basis. In general, total simulated fuel use and emissions were within 5% of observed values across the three test cases. The fitness of this method for other purposes was demonstrated by creating cold start maps and isolating the performance of tailpipe emissions reduction technologies. The potential of this work extends beyond the creation of vehicle engine maps to allow investigations into: emissions hot spots; real-world emissions factors; and accurate air quality modelling using simulated per second emissions from vehicles operating in over any driving cycle.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Centre for Sustainable Road Freight Transport (EP/K00915X/1), Energy Efficient Cities Initiative (EP/ F034350/1)

Characterization and Evaluation of Methane Oxidation Catalysts for Dual-Fuel Diesel and Natural Gas Engines

The UK has incentivized the use of natural gas in heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) by converting to dual-fuel (DF) diesel-natural gas systems to reduce noxious and greenhouse gas emissions. Laboratory and on-road measurements of DF vehicles have demonstrated a decrease in CO$_2$ emissions relative to diesel, but there is an increase in greenhouse gas (CO$_2$e) emissions because of unburned methane. Decreasing tailpipe emissions of methane via after-treatment devices in lean-burn compression ignition engines is a challenge because of low exhaust temperatures (~400 °C) and the presence of water vapor. In this study, six commercially available methane oxidation catalysts (MOCs) were tested for their application in DF HGV vehicles. Each MOC was characterized in terms of the catalyst platinum group metal (PGM) loading (both Pd and Pt), particle size, catalytic surface area, and Pd:Pt ratio. In addition, the washcoat surface area, pore volume, and pore size were evaluated. The MOC conversion efficiency was evaluated in controlled methane-oxidation experiments with varying temperatures, flow rates, and gas compositions. Characteristic-conversion efficiency correlations demonstrate that the influential MOC characteristics were PGM loading (both Pd and Pt), Pd:Pt ratio, washcoat surface area, and washcoat pore volume. With 90 % methane oxidation at less than 400 °C in DF HGV exhaust conditions, sample 1 had the highest conversion efficiency because of a high PGM loading (330 g/ft$^3$, 12,000 g/m$^3$), a 5.9 Pd:Pt ratio, a high alumina washcoat surface area of 20 m$^2$/cm$^3$, and 74-mm$^3$/cm$^3$ pore volume. Additional studies showed increased MOC conversion efficiency with decreasing gas hourly space velocities (GHSVs) and increasing methane concentrations.We acknowledge support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K00915X/1), the UK Department for Transport, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and Innovate UK (project reference 400266), and the industrial partners of the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. GreenUrban Technologies Ltd. (3) and Prins Autogas UK Ltd. (1) provided the samples for testing in this study

Real world CO2 and NOx emissions from 149 Euro 5 and 6 diesel, gasoline and hybrid passenger cars.

In this study CO2 and NOx emissions from 149 Euro 5 and 6 diesel, gasoline and hybrid passenger cars were compared using a Portable Emissions Measurement System (PEMS). The models sampled accounted for 56% of all passenger cars sold in Europe in 2016. We found gasoline vehicles had CO2 emissions 13-66% higher than diesel. During urban driving, the average CO2 emission factor was 210.5 (sd. 47) gkm-1 for gasoline and 170.2 (sd. 34) gkm-1 for diesel. Half the gasoline vehicles tested were Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI). Euro 6 GDI engines <1.4ℓ delivered ~17% CO2 reduction compared to Port Fuel Injection (PFI). Gasoline vehicles delivered an 86-96% reduction in NOx emissions compared to diesel cars. The average urban NOx emission from Euro 6 diesel vehicles 0.44 (sd. 0.44) gkm-1 was 11 times higher than for gasoline 0.04 (sd. 0.04) gkm-1. We also analysed two gasoline-electric hybrids which out-performed both gasoline and diesel for NOx and CO2. We conclude action is required to mitigate the public health risk created by excessive NOx emissions from modern diesel vehicles. Replacing diesel with gasoline would incur a substantial CO2 penalty, however greater uptake of hybrid vehicles would likely reduce both CO2 and NOx emissions. Discrimination of vehicles on the basis of Euro standard is arbitrary and incentives should promote vehicles with the lowest real-world emissions of both NOx and CO2

Airport emissions reductions from reduced thrust takeoff operations

Given forecast aviation growth, many airports are predicted to reach capacity and require expansion. However, pressure to meet air quality regulations emphasises the importance of efficient ground-level aircraft activities to facilitate growth. Operational strategies such as reducing engine thrust setting at takeoff can reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions; however, quantification of the benefits and consistency of its use have been limited by data restrictions. Using 3336 high-resolution flight data records, this paper analyses the impact of reduced thrust takeoff at London Heathrow. Results indicate that using reduced thrust takeoff reduces fuel consumption, nitrogen oxides (NOX) and black carbon (BC) emissions by 1.0–23.2%, 10.7–47.7%, and 49.0–71.7% respectively, depending on aircraft-engine combinations relative to 100% thrust takeoff. Variability in thrust settings for the same aircraft-engine combination and dependence on takeoff weight (TOW) is quantified. Consequently, aircraft-engine specific optimum takeoff thrust settings that minimise fuel consumption and pollutant emissions for different aircraft TOWs are presented. Further reductions of 1.9%, 5.8% and 6.5% for fuel consumption, NOX and BC emissions could be achieved, equating to reductions of approximately 0.4%, 3.5% and 3.3% in total ground level fuel consumption, NOX and BC emissions. These results quantify the contribution that reduced thrust operations offer towards achieving industry environmental targets and air quality compliance, and imply that the current implementation of reduced thrust takeoff at Heathrow is near optimal, considering operational and safety constraints.The Sensor Network for Air Quality (SNAQ) at London Heathrow consortium, funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (project reference: NE/I007172/1), provided the data that supports this research. G. Koudis received funding from The Lloyds Register Foundation

Do we need high temporal resolution modelling of exposure in urban areas? A test case

Roadside concentrations of harmful pollutants such as NOx are highly variable in both space and time. This is rarely considered when assessing pedestrian and cyclist exposures. We aim to fully describe the spatio-temporal variability of exposures of pedestrians and cyclists travelling along a road at high resolution. We evaluate the value added of high spatio-temporal resolution compared to high spatial resolution only. We also compare high resolution vehicle emissions modelling to using a constant volume source. We highlight conditions of peak exposures, and discuss implications for health impact assessments. Using the large eddy simulation code Fluidity we simulate NOx concentrations at a resolution of 2 m and 1 s along a 350 m road segment in a complex real-world street geometry including an intersection and bus stops. We then simulate pedestrian and cyclist journeys for different routes and departure times. For the high spatio-temporal method, the standard deviation in 1 s concentration experienced by pedestrians (50.9 μg.m-3) is nearly three times greater than that predicted by the high-spatial only (17.5 μg.m-3) or constant volume source (17.6 μg.m-3) methods. This exposure is characterised by low concentrations punctuated by short duration, peak exposures which elevate the mean exposure and are not captured by the other two methods. We also find that the mean exposure of cyclists on the road (31.8 μg.m-3) is significantly greater than that of cyclists on a roadside path (25.6 μg.m-3) and that of pedestrians on a sidewalk (17.6 μg.m-3). We conclude that ignoring high resolution temporal air pollution variability experienced at the breathing time scale can lead to a mischaracterization of pedestrian and cyclist exposures, and therefore also potentially the harm caused. High resolution methods reveal that peaks, and hence mean exposures, can be meaningfully reduced by avoiding hyper-local hotspots such as bus stops and junctions

Aviation contrail climate effects in the North Atlantic from 2016 to 2021

Around 5 % of anthropogenic radiative forcing (RF) is attributed to aviation CO2 and non-CO2 impacts. This paper quantifies aviation emissions and contrail climate forcing in the North Atlantic, one of the world's busiest air traffic corridors, over 5 years. Between 2016 and 2019, growth in CO2 (+3.13 % yr−1) and nitrogen oxide emissions (+4.5 % yr−1) outpaced increases in flight distance (+3.05 % yr−1). Over the same period, the annual mean contrail cirrus net RF (204–280 mW m−2) showed significant inter-annual variability caused by variations in meteorology. Responses to COVID-19 caused significant reductions in flight distance travelled (−66 %), CO2 emissions (−71 %) and the contrail net RF (−66 %) compared with the prior 1-year period. Around 12 % of all flights in this region cause 80 % of the annual contrail energy forcing, and the factors associated with strongly warming/cooling contrails include seasonal changes in meteorology and radiation, time of day, background cloud fields, and engine-specific non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM) emissions. Strongly warming contrails in this region are generally formed in wintertime, close to the tropopause, between 15:00 and 04:00 UTC, and above low-level clouds. The most strongly cooling contrails occur in the spring, in the upper troposphere, between 06:00 and 15:00 UTC, and without lower-level clouds. Uncertainty in the contrail cirrus net RF (216–238 mW m−2) arising from meteorology in 2019 is smaller than the inter-annual variability. The contrail RF estimates are most sensitive to the humidity fields, followed by nvPM emissions and aircraft mass assumptions. This longitudinal evaluation of aviation contrail impacts contributes a quantified understanding of inter-annual variability and informs strategies for contrail mitigation

The trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption in airport ground movement

Environmental impact is a very important agenda item in many sectors nowadays, which the air transportation sector is also trying to reduce as much as possible. One area which has remained relatively unexplored in this context is the ground movement problem for aircraft on the airport’s surface. Aircraft have to be routed from a gate to a runway and vice versa and it is still unknown whether fuel burn and environmental impact reductions will best result from purely minimising the taxi times or whether it is also important to avoid multiple acceleration phases. This paper presents a newly developed multi-objective approach for analysing the trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption during taxiing. The approach consists of a combination of a graph-based routing algorithm and a population adaptive immune algorithm to discover different speed profiles of aircraft. Analysis with data from a European hub airport has highlighted the impressive performance of the new approach. Furthermore, it is shown that the trade-off between taxi time and fuel consumption is very sensitive to the fuel-related objective function which is used

Particle emission characteristics of a gas turbine with a double annular combustor

The total climate, air quality and health impact of aircraft black carbon (BC) emissions depends on quantity (mass and number concentration), as well as morphology (fractal dimension and surface area) of emitted BC aggregates. This study examines multiple BC emission metrics from a gas turbine with a double annular combustor, CFM56-5B4-2P. As a part of the SAMPLE III.2 campaign, concurrent measurements of particle mobility, particle mass, particle number concentration and mass concentration, as well as collection of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples, allowed for characterization of the BC emissions. Mass- and number-based emission indices were strongly influenced by thrust setting during pilot combustion and ranged from <1 to 208 mg/kg-fuel and 3×1012 to 3×1016 particles/kg-fuel, respectively. Mobility measurements indicated that mean diameters ranged from 7-44 nm with a strong dependence on thrust during pilot-only combustion. Using aggregation and sintering theory with empirical effective density relationships, a power law relationship between primary particle diameter and mobility diameter is presented. Mean primary particle diameter ranged from 6-19 nm, however, laser induced incandescence (LII) and mass-mobility calculated primary particle diameters demonstrated opposite trends with thrust setting. Similarly, mass-mobility-calculated aggregate mass specific surface area and LII-measured surface area were not in agreement, indicating both methods need further development and validation before use as quantitative indicators of primary particle diameter and mass-specific surface area.The authors express their gratitude to a number of people and organizations in helping to plan, conduct, finance and provide instruments for this measurement campaign. The 537 European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) funded the SAMPLE III SC02 campaign (EASA.2010.FC.10, Specific Contract No: SC02). The Federal Office of Civil Aviation, Switzerland (FOCA) was critical in for providing additional financial support and arranging facilities which made this study possible. We also thank the SR Technics test bed staff, including Frithjof Siegerist, for operating the engines and enabling access to the test facility. We thank AVL, Cambustion, Grimm & TSI supplying both instruments and expertise.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2015.107845

The ventilation of buildings and other mitigating measures for COVID-19: a focus on wintertime.

The year 2020 has seen the emergence of a global pandemic as a result of the disease COVID-19. This report reviews knowledge of the transmission of COVID-19 indoors, examines the evidence for mitigating measures, and considers the implications for wintertime with a focus on ventilation.This work was undertaken as a contribution to the Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) initiative, coordinated by the Royal Society

The ventilation of buildings and other mitigating measures for COVID-19: a focus on wintertime.

The year 2020 has seen the emergence of a global pandemic as a result of the disease COVID-19. This report reviews knowledge of the transmission of COVID-19 indoors, examines the evidence for mitigating measures, and considers the implications for wintertime with a focus on ventilation