The nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution in urban areas of Europe can be partially attributed to the increasing market penetration of diesel cars that show higher distance-specific nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions than gasoline cars. The on-road NOx emissions of diesel cars, furthermore, appear to exceed substantially applicable emissions standards. This observation raises concerns that the introduction of
more stringent Euro 6 emissions standards in 2014 may not adequately reduce the distance-specific on-road NOx emissions of new diesel cars. We address the existing concerns by analyzing the gaseous emissions of one novel Euro 6 diesel car and six Euro 4-5 diesel cars with Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS). We find that the average on-road NOx emissions of the Euro 6 car (0.21 ± 0.09 gram per kilometer [g/km]) are considerably lower than those of the Euro 4 cars (0.76 ± 0.12 g/km) and the Euro 5 cars (0.71 ± 0.30 g/km). The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system of the Euro 6 diesel car is suitable to limit NOx emissions during real-world on-road driving. Still, all tested cars, including the Euro 6 diesel car, exceed their NOx emissions standards on the road by 260 ±130%. This finding suggests that the current type-approval procedure does not adequately capture the on-road NOx emissions of diesel cars. By introducing a complementary emissions test procedure that covers a wide range of normal operating conditions, the European legislative authorities can address this problem and ensure that Euro 6 will indeed deliver an adequate reduction in the NOx emissions of new diesel cars.
WEISS Martin;
BONNEL Pierre;
KÜHLWEIN Jörg;
PROVENZA Alessio;
LAMBRECHT Udo;
ALESSANDRINI Stefano;
CARRIERO Massimo;
COLOMBO Rinaldo;
FORNI Fausto;
LANAPPE Gaston;
LE LIJOUR Philippe;
MANFREDI Urbano;
MONTIGNY Francois;
SCULATI Mirco;
2012-10-18
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
JRC71076
1352-2310,
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231012008412#,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC71076,
10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.08.056,
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