Overview of Emissions at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and Impact of Local Weather on Related Pollutant Concentrations

Abstract

This study used AEDT 2.d to estimate the pollutant emissions at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) for 2015 while quantifying the impact of the airport’s taxi time and atmospheric conditions on aircraft emissions. Using the more airport-specific parameters available and ICAO standard values otherwise, the yearly emissions of NOx, HC, CO, PM₁₀, SOx, and CO₂ at YUL were, respectively, 7.64 10², 1.18 10², 1.33 10³, 1.35 10¹, 6.77 10¹, and 2.31 10⁵ tonnes/year. The results show that reducing aircraft taxi time by 31 % reduced aircraft emissions by 6 % (NOx) and 27 % (CO). Atmospheric conditions impact aircraft emissions of NOx, CO and HC with a seasonal effect. Summer conditions reduced NOx emissions by 5 % and increased CO emissions by 2 %, while winter conditions reduced HC and CO emissions by approximately 15 % and increased NOx emissions by 1 %. To further investigate the impact of atmospheric conditions, dispersion calculations of NOx and CO emissions were carried out using identical air-traffic and weather data from the warmest and coldest weeks in 2015. The results demonstrate that pollutant concentrations were higher during the winter and that pollutants were also dispersed further during the winter than the summer according to the dominant wind direction. A 1-h NOx and CO concentrations greater than 10 μg/m³ were found up to 24 km and 30 km, respectively, away during the winter compared to 14 km and 20 km during the summer. Yet, local air quality standards were satisfied as pollutant concentrations found outside the airport enclosure were below those standards.