Quantifying Emissions of Greenhouse Gases under Real-World Driving Conditions
Focus Area
Climate Change
Subcommittee
Air Quality, Environmental Process
Status
Archived
Cost
$100k-$249k
Timeframe
Unknown
Research Idea Scope
We propose an on-road study of vehicular non-carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas emitted from vehicles, potentially accounting for as much as 25% of
The proposed study will use the U.S. Highway 26 ‘Vista Ridge Tunnel’ to assess average vehicular non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. This tunnel is located in southwest
Urgency and Payoff
Greenhouse gas emission inventories and global budgets are regularly created to understand abundances of the radiatively important gases, identify reasons for changes in their abundance, and develop strategies to mitigate their emissions. Results of this work will be of particular value in constructing comprehensive regional emissions inventories and global budgets for CH4 and N2O which include vehicular sources. Although on a global scale CH4 and N2O from vehicles is thought to represent a few percent or less of the total burden, their contribution to emissions inventories from urban areas may be quite large. The application of stable isotope analysis in this process can be of particular value if the isotopic signatures from all sources are known. To date, the isotopic composition of CH4 and N2O from vehicles has not been measured directly. This proposed work will result in these first valuable data.
Submitted
05/14/2008