Emissions of non-methane hydrocarbons from cars in China

This study investigated the exhaust emission of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) from cars in China at the Beijing driving cycle on the chassis dynamometer. The emission factor average of NMHCs was 0.9 g/km, which was over twice that from the Australian car fleet and 2–4 times that of the American car emission in the 1990s–2000s. The emission profile of Beijing cars showed higher fractions of aromatics and C4–C7 HCs, and lower percentages of C2–C3 HCs, compared with those of the US car fleet. The average ratio of benzene/toluene for cars tested was 0.5, the average benzene/toluene/ethyl benzene/xylenes (BTEX) ratios were 1/2.2/0.1/1.8, which were consistent with those of the Tanyugou tunnel located in the suburb of Beijing. α-pinene and β-pinene were detected from the exhaust gas on dynamometer for the first time, and had likely similar exhaust emission characteristics with C2–C3 HCs and styrene, giving an evidence that air pinenes may be related to human activities. Isoprene was also detected directly. These observations suggest that the procedure regarding pinenes and isoprene as coming from biologic sources of VOCs in the atmosphere should be applied with great care, especially in the core of the big city like Beijing. The specific reactivity of NMHCs was higher than that of cars of US, and the specific reactivity of volatile aromatic compounds was higher than that of the US SPECIATE database.