On-road tailpipe emission characteristics and ozone formation potentials of VOCs from gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas fueled vehicles

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of motor vehicles contribute greatly to ground-level ozone formation, especially in the megacity regions. While the variations of tailpipe VOC emissions along with the vehicle technologies and road conditions are rarely investigated systematically. Thus, on-road tailpipe VOC emissions from in-use vehicles, including light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGV), light-duty diesel trucks (LDDT), heavy-duty diesel truck (HDDT) and liquefied petroleum gas-electric hybrid bus (LPGB), were sampled with a combined portable emission measurement system (PEMS). A total of 102 individual VOC species were quantified by a gas chromatography mass spectrometry detector (GC-MSD), and the maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) scale was used to calculate the ozone formation potentials (OFPs). Results showed that aromatics and alkanes were the major VOC groups regardless of the vehicle type, accounting for 68.1–98.0%. For the LDGV, i-pentane, acetone, and propane were the top three VOC species. Naphthalene, dodecane and n-undecane were main VOC constituents in the diesel exhaust. Acetone was the most abundant VOC species for the LPGB, followed by i-pentane, i-butane and n-butane. Road conditions had a significant impact on the VOC emission factors. Specifically, emission factors on urban roads were 3.3–7.0 times those on the highway. The OFPs were 70.7, 128.1, 2189.4 and 124.7 mg O3/km for the LDGV, LDDT, HDDT and LPGB, respectively; aromatics were the main contributors, occupying 49.6–93.4% of the total OFPs. Results indicated that emission factors and dominant species of VOCs were strongly affected by vehicle technologies and road conditions, but aromatics were the major group for both VOC composition and OFPs. •VOCs from various types of vehicles were investigated systematically with the PEMS.•Aromatics and alkanes were the dominant VOC groups from in-use vehicle exhaust.•Aromatics were the major contributors of the total OFPs, accounting for 49.6–93.4%.•Naphthalene was the most abundant VOC species emitted by HDDT, accounting for 31.8%.•Road conditions had great impacts on tailpipe VOC emissions.