On-Road Investigation of PM Emissions of Passenger Vehicles Fuelled with Diesel and Gasoline Using Mobile Emission Laboratory

A mobile emission laboratory (MEL) was designed to measure the amount of traffic pollutants, with high temporal and spatial resolution under real conditions. Equipment for the gas-phase measurements of CO, NOx, CO2, and THC and for the measurement of the number, concentration, and size distribution of fine and ultra-fine particles by an FMPS and CPC was placed in a minivan. The exhausts of different types of vehicles can be sampled by an MEL. This paper describes the technical details of the MEL and presents data from the experiment in which a car chases passenger vehicles fuelled by diesel and gasoline. The particle number concentration in the exhaust of the diesel vehicle was higher than that of the gasoline vehicle. However, the diesel vehicle with a DPF emitted fewer particles than the vehicle equipped with a gasoline direct injection engine, with particle diameters over 50 nm.