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Emission factors of air pollutants from vehicles measured inside road tunnels in São Paulo: case study comparison

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Abstract

Burning of fuels from the transport sector is one of the main sources of air pollutants emission in urban areas. In order to implement public policies concerning air quality and public health, there is a need to develop emission inventories. Measurements inside traffic tunnels can provide an evaluation of emission factors of vehicles in-use in real conditions. In this paper, we show measurements of air pollutants for a mixed vehicle fleet, heavy- and light-duty vehicles (HDVs and LDVs), in two tunnels in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo in 2011 in order to calculate the pollutant emission factors (EFs). Measurements of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particle matter (PM2.5) were taken. High concentrations related to high-density traffic, especially during weekdays. EFs were heavily influenced by the pollutant species loads, so the total vehicle traffic and the fraction of HDV. The EF values for HDV were 3.6 and 9.2 g km−1, for CO and NOx, respectively (5.8 and 0.3 g km−1 for LDV). To determine EF estimates, parameters such as velocity of the air, cross-sectional area and length of the tunnel and vehicles passing at 1-h time interval were considered.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the São Paulo State Research Foundation FAPESP, Research Program on Global Climate Change, for the financial support of this work (Processes 2008/58104-8 and 2011/18777-6). This study was also supported by the European Research Council (Grant 246565) in the framework of the Marie Curie UNITE project and through the program for contracting experienced researchers for scientific and technological research (COFUND, 7th Framework). We also thank the State Company for the Environment CETESB and the traffic engineering company CR for providing air quality and road traffic data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ETSIM-Grupo en Economía Sostenible del Medio Natural (ECSEN), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, C/Ramiro de Maeztu s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    P. J. Pérez-Martínez, T. Nogueira, A. Fornaro, R. Ynoue & M. F. Andrade

  2. Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (IAG), Universidad de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, 1226, São Paulo, 05508-090, Brazil

    P. J. Pérez-Martínez

  3. School of Arts, Science and Humanities, Universidad de São Paulo, Av. Arlindo Bettio, 1000, São Paulo, 03828-000, Brazil

    R. M. Miranda

  4. São Paulo State Environmental Regulation Agency, São Paulo, Brazil

    M. L. Guardani

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  1. P. J. Pérez-Martínez
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  2. R. M. Miranda
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  7. M. F. Andrade
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Correspondence to P. J. Pérez-Martínez.

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Pérez-Martínez, P.J., Miranda, R.M., Nogueira, T. et al. Emission factors of air pollutants from vehicles measured inside road tunnels in São Paulo: case study comparison. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 11, 2155–2168 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0562-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-014-0562-7

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