On-road and laboratory emissions from three gasoline plug-in hybrid vehicles-part 2: solid particle number emissions

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are a promising technology for reducing the tailpipe emissions of CO2 as well as air pollutants, especially in urban environments. However, several studies rise questions over their after-treatment exhaust efficiency when their internal combustion engine (ICE) ignites. The rationale is the high ICE load during the cold start in combination with the cold conditions of the after-treatment devices. In this study, we measured the solid particle number (SPN) emissions of two Euro 6d and one Euro 6d-TEMP gasoline direct injection (GDI) PHEVs (electric range 52-61 km) all equipped with a gasoline particulate filter (GPF), in the laboratory and on-road with different states of charge of the rechargeable electric energy storage system (REESS) and ambient temperatures. All vehicles met the regulation limits but it was observed that, even for fully charged REESS, when the ICE ignited SPN emissions were similar or even higher in some cases compared to the operation of these vehicles solely with their ICE (discharged REESS) and also when compared to conventional GDI vehicles. The concentration of particles below 23 nm, which is the currently regulated lower particle size, was low (≤18%), showing that particles larger than 23 nm were mainly emitted irrespective of cold or hot engine operation and ambient temperature.

MELAS Anastasios;  SELLERI Tommaso;  FRANZETTI Jacopo;  FERRARESE Christian;  SUAREZ BERTOA Ricardo;  GIECHASKIEL Barouch; 

2022-07-25

MDPI

JRC129930

1996-1073 (online),   

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5266,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129930,   

10.3390/en15145266 (online),