Size-resolved emissions of organic tracers from light-and heavy-duty vehicles measured in a California roadway tunnel

Individual organic compounds found in particulate emissions from vehicles have proven useful in source apportionment of ambient particulate matter. Species of interest include the hopanes, originating in lube oil, and selected PAHs generated via combustion. Most efforts to date have focused on emissions and apportionment PM10 or PM2.5. However, examining how these compounds are segregated by particle size in both emissions and ambient samples will help efforts to apportion size-resolved PM, especially ultrafine particles which have been shown to be more potent toxicologically. To this end, high volume size-resolved (coarse, accumulation, and ultrafine) PM samples were collected inside the Caldecott tunnel in Orinda, California to determine the relative emission factors for these compounds in different size ranges. Sampling occurred in two bores, one off-limits to heavy-duty diesel vehicles, which allows determination of the different emissions profiles for diesel and gasoline vehicles. Although tunnel measurements do not measure emissions over a full engine duty cycle, they do provide an average emissions profile over thousands of vehicles that can be considered characteristic of "freeway" emissions. Results include size-fractionated emission rates for hopanes, PAHs, elemental carbon, and other potential organic markers apportioned to diesel and gasoline vehicles. The results are compared to previously conducted PM2.5 emissions testing using dynamometer facilities and other tunnel environments.