Evaluation of roadway PM{sub 10} and PM{sub 25} emission rates in Washington state

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:466076

Clairborn, C; Kantamaneni, R; Lamb, B; Westberg, H ^[1]; Larson, T ^[2]

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1. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

Particulate matter emission rate estimates from paved and unpaved roads are currently based upon highly uncertain EPA approved empirical correlation. Because of the importance of paved and unpaved roads in the PM10 emission inventory in Spokane, stationary and mobile atmospheric tracer techniques have been utilized to improve these estimates, and to examine the effects on the roadway emission rates of traction sand, street sweeping, and ambient relative humidity. In these experiments, SF6 was used as an atmospheric tracer, and both point and line source releases have been attempted. Moreover, point sources have been released from both mobile and stationary sources. The point source was determined to provide the best estimate of emission rates; the overall uncertainty was estimated to be 27%. Emission factors determined for major streets (4+ lanes and {ge} 10, 000 vehicles/day) were found to be 40 % and 10 % lower than those estimated using the EPA correlations for unsanded and sanded roads, respectively. The results of these experiments also suggest that the street sweeping has a slight effect on PM{sub 10} emissions. A more important variable was the relative humidity, with which PM{sub 10} emissions from paved roads showed a negative correlation.

• OSTI ID: 466076
• Report Number(s): CONF-9606185--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOLS
EMISSION
PARTICULATES
ROADS
WASHINGTON