General Audience Oral Presentations Abstracts

TOPIC #3

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1. Semivolatile Organic Compound Emission Profiles
for Canadian Motor Vehicles

Lisa A. Graham
Environment Canada
Emissions Research and Measurement Division, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Chung Chiu, Gary Poole
Environment Canada
Analysis and Air Quality Division, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Jean-Pierre Charland, Tony McPhee, Penny MacDonald
Natural Resources Canada
CANMET Energy Technology Centre Ottawa, Ontario Canada

In 1999, PM2.5 emissions were collected from 75 in-use light duty gasoline motor vehicles during chassis dynamometer tests conducted in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2001, PM2.5 samples were collected during the Cassiar Tunnel Study in Vancouver. The traffic in the tunnel during the study was composed of a minimum of 85% light duty gasoline vehicles. PM samples from both of these studies were analyzed for n-alkanes (C11-C36), petroleum biomarker compounds (65 hopanes and steranes), alkylcyclohexanes (C3-C20 alkyl groups) PAH, NO2-PAH and PAsH. Samples of engine lubricating oil collected from each of the in-use vehicles, samples of new unused lubricating oil representing both light duty and heavy duty applications and samples of diesel fuel collected during the tunnel study were also analyzed for the same suites of compounds in an effort to identify the sources of these compounds in the particulate matter emissions.

Comparison of normalized emission profiles from the PM2.5 emission samples, the lubricating oils and the fuels indicate that these compounds appear in the PM2.5 samples as a result of lubricating oil blow-by. The compounds differentiating lubricating oils from diesel fuel do not appear in the PM2.5 samples. Also, the composition of the lubricating oils differ more between producers than between application grades from the same producer. This last result suggests that the use of these suites of compounds to differentiate PM emissions of PM between light duty gasoline and heavy-duty diesel sources may not be possible.

Comparisons of the profiles collected under dynamometer testing conditions to those collected at the tunnel will also be shown, providing important information that will be useful in assessing variability of profiles from the same sources collected under different conditions.

2. Comparisons of Nitro-PAHs and Nitro-oxy-PAHs in Ambient Air and Diesel Exhaust Samples

Janet Arey
Air Pollution Research Center
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521

The nitro-PAH isomer profiles of combustion sources such as diesel exhaust are often distinct from the isomer profiles of ambient air due to the presence in ambient samples of nitro-PAHs formed from radical-initiated atmospheric reactions of gas-phase PAHs. In addition to nitro-PAHs, genotoxic nitro-PAH ketones and nitro-PAH lactones can be produced by atmospheric reactions. The nitro-PAHs, including semi-volatile 2-ring nitro-PAHs, and nitro-oxy-PAHs present in ambient air samples will be compared to those in diesel exhaust samples.

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