Source apportionment of emissions from light-duty gasoline vehicles and other sources in the United States for ozone and particulate matter.

UNLABELLED: Federal Tier 3 motor vehicle emission and fuel sulfur standards have been promulgated in the United States to help attain air quality standards for ozone and PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 µm). The authors modeled a standard similar to Tier 3 (a hypothetical nationwide implementation of the California Low Emission Vehicle [LEV] III standards) and prior Tier 2 standards for on-road gasoline-fueled light-duty vehicles (gLDVs) to assess incremental air quality benefits in the United States (U.S.) and the relative contributions of gLDVs and other major source categories to ozone and PM2.5 in 2030. Strengthening Tier 2 to a Tier 3-like (LEV III) standard reduces the summertime monthly mean of daily maximum 8-hr average (MDA8) ozone in the eastern U.S. by up to 1.5 ppb (or 2%) and the maximum MDA8 ozone by up to 3.4 ppb (or 3%). Reducing gasoline sulfur content from 30 to 10 ppm is responsible for up to 0.3 ppb of the improvement in the monthly mean ozone and up to 0.8 ppb of the improvement in maximum ozone. Across four major urban areas-Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, and St. Louis-gLDV contributions range from 5% to 9% and 3% to 6% of the summertime mean MDA8 ozone under Tier 2 and Tier 3, respectively, and from 7% to 11% and 3% to 7% of the maximum MDA8 ozone under Tier 2 and Tier 3, respectively. Monthly mean 24-hr PM2.5 decreases by up to 0.5 µg/m(3) (or 3%) in the eastern U.S. from Tier 2 to Tier 3, with about 0.1 µg/m(3) of the reduction due to the lower gasoline sulfur content. At the four urban areas under the Tier 3 program, gLDV emissions contribute 3.4-5.0% and 1.7-2.4% of the winter and summer mean 24-hr PM2.5, respectively, and 3.8-4.6% and 1.5-2.0% of the mean 24-hr PM2.5 on days with elevated PM2.5 in winter and summer, respectively. IMPLICATIONS: Following U.S. Tier 3 emissions and fuel sulfur standards for gasoline-fueled passenger cars and light trucks, these vehicles are expected to contribute less than 6% of the summertime mean daily maximum 8-hr ozone and less than 7% and 4% of the winter and summer mean 24-hr PM2.5 in the eastern U.S. in 2030. On days with elevated ozone or PM2.5 at four major urban areas, these vehicles contribute less than 7% of ozone and less than 5% of PM2.5, with sources outside North America and U.S. area source emissions constituting some of the main contributors to ozone and PM2.5, respectively.

Source Apportionment of the Anthropogenic Increment to Ozone, Formaldehyde, and Nitrogen Dioxide by the Path-Integral Method in a 3D Model.

The anthropogenic increment of a species is the difference in concentration between a base-case simulation with all emissions included and a background simulation without the anthropogenic emissions. The Path-Integral Method (PIM) is a new technique that can determine the contributions of individual anthropogenic sources to this increment. The PIM was applied to a simulation of O3 formation in July 2030 in the U.S., using the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions and assuming advanced controls on light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and other sources. The PIM determines the source contributions by integrating first-order sensitivity coefficients over a range of emissions, a path, from the background case to the base case. There are many potential paths, with each representing a specific emission-control strategy leading to zero anthropogenic emissions, i.e., controlling all sources together versus controlling some source(s) preferentially are different paths. Three paths were considered, and the O3, formaldehyde, and NO2 anthropogenic increments were apportioned to five source categories. At rural and urban sites in the eastern U.S. and for all three paths, point sources typically have the largest contribution to the O3 and NO2 anthropogenic increments, and either LDVs or area sources, the smallest. Results for formaldehyde are more complex.

Lubrication characteristics of nano-oil with different degrees of surface hardness of sliding members.

In this study, the lubrication characteristics of sliding members were compared with the changes in the hardness of friction surfaces and the application of nano-oil. The materials of the specimens were gray cast iron (AISI 35 and AISI 60) and nickel chromium molybdenum steel (AISI 4320). The friction coefficients and the temperature variations of the frictional surfaces were measured with a disk-on-disk tribotester under a fixed rotation speed. The friction surfaces were observed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The friction coefficients of the plate surface increased as the hardness difference increased. The friction coefficient after the lubrication with nano-oil was less than that after lubrication with mineral oil. This is because a spherical nanoparticle plays the role of a tiny ball bearing between the frictional surfaces that improve the lubrication characteristics.

Effects of wire-type and mesh-type anode current collectors on performance and electrochemistry of microbial fuel cells.

Carbon-based material is commonly used for anodes in MFCs, but its low conductivity often limits anodic performance. Application of corrosion-resistive current collector to carbon-based anode can be a promising strategy for increasing the anodic performance. In this study, it was hypothesized increasing metal current collector improved anodic performance. Two different carbon-felt anodes with titanium wires (CF-W) or stainless steel mesh (CF-M) as a current collector were tested in a single chamber MFC. In the short-term tests such as polarization and impedance tests, CF-M with the larger current collector area (21.7 cm2) had 33% higher maximum power (2311 mW/m2), 81% lower anodic resistance (3 Ω), and 92% lower anodic impedance (1.1 Ω). However, in the long-term tests, CF-W with the smaller current collector area (0.6 cm2) showed higher performance in power and current generation, COD removal, and CE (51%, 10%, 11%, and 5% higher, respectively) and produced 41% higher net current in cyclic voltagramm (20.0 mA vs. 14.2 mA). This result shows that larger current collector is advantageous in short-term performance and disadvantageous in long-term performance, because the larger current collector is good for current collection, but interferes with mass transfer and microbial growth.

Evaluation of multisectional and two-section particulate matter photochemical grid models in the Western United States.

Version 4.10s of the comprehensive air-quality model with extensions (CAMx) photochemical grid model has been developed, which includes two options for representing particulate matter (PM) size distribution: (1) a two-section representation that consists of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM2.5-10) modes that has no interactions between the sections and assumes all of the secondary PM is fine; and (2) a multisectional representation that divides the PM size distribution into N sections (e.g., N = 10) and simulates the mass transfer between sections because of coagulation, accumulation, evaporation, and other processes. The model was applied to Southern California using the two-section and multisection representation of PM size distribution, and we found that allowing secondary PM to grow into the coarse mode had a substantial effect on PM concentration estimates. CAMx was then applied to the Western United States for the 1996 annual period with a 36-km grid resolution using both the two-section and multisection PM representation. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) and Regional Modeling for Aerosol and Deposition (REMSAD) models were also applied to the 1996 annual period. Similar model performance was exhibited by the four models across the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) and Clean Air Status and Trends Network monitoring networks. All four of the models exhibited fairly low annual bias for secondary PM sulfate and nitrate but with a winter overestimation and summer underestimation bias. The CAMx multisectional model estimated that coarse mode secondary sulfate and nitrate typically contribute <10% of the total sulfate and nitrate when averaged across the more rural IMPROVE monitoring network.

Comparison of source apportionment and sensitivity analysis in a particulate matter air duality model.

Two efficient methods to study relationships between particulate matter (PM) concentrations and emission sources are compared in the three-dimensional comprehensive air quality model with extensions (CAMx). Particulate source apportionment technology (PSAT) is a tagged species method that apportions concentrations of PM components to their respective primary precursors, e.g., sulfate is apportioned to SOx, nitrate to NOx, etc. The decoupled direct method (DDM) calculates first-order sensitivities of PM concentrations to model inputs. Both tools were applied to two month long (February and July) PM modeling episodes and evaluated against changes in PM concentrations due to various emission reductions. The results show that source contributions calculated by PSAT start to deviate from the actual model responses as indirect effects from limiting reactants or nonprimary precursor emissions become important The DDM first-order sensitivity is useful for determining source contributions only if the model response to input changes is reasonably linear. For secondary inorganic PM, the response is linear for emission reductions of 20% in all cases considered and reasonably linear for reductions of 100% inthe case of on-road mobile sources. The model response for secondary organic aerosols and primary PM remains nearly linear to 100% reductions in anthropogenic emissions.

Implementing the decoupled direct method for sensitivity analysis in a particulate matter air quality model.

The decoupled direct method (DDM) is an efficient and accurate way of performing sensitivity analysis to model inputs. As the impact of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) on human health and visibility became evident, the need to extend the DDM to PM sensitivity has grown. In this work, the DDM is implemented in the three PM modules employed in the Comprehensive Air-quality Model with extensions (CAMx): ISORROPIA for inorganic gas/aerosol partitioning, SOAP for secondary organic gas/aerosol partitioning, and RADM-AQ for aqueous-phase chemistry. The PM modules are complex and the DDM implementation is discussed in detail. Stand-alone tests are performed for each PM module in which first-order sensitivities computed bythe DDM are compared tothe traditional brute-force method (BFM). The DDM sensitivities are shown to be accurate and agree well with the BFM within the linear response range. The SOAP module showed nearly linear response for up to +/-30% changes in concentration inputs. The RADM-AQ module showed moderately nonlinear response in some tests but first-order sensitivities accounted for most of the response for input changes up to +/-20%. ISORROPIA shows greater deviation from linear response than the other PM modules and the near-linear range can be as restricted as +/-10% changes in concentration inputs. Nonlinearity in ISORROPIA results both from the equations that describe thermodynamic equilibrium and the computational approaches within ISORROPIA that are employed to boost efficiency.