ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-6-3281-2006 Vehicular fuel composition and atmospheric emissions in South China: Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, and Zhuhai Tsai W. Y. 1 Chan L. Y. 1 Blake D. R. 2 Chu K. W. 1 Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA 08 08 2006 6 11 3281 3288 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/3281/2006/acp-6-3281-2006.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/3281/2006/acp-6-3281-2006.pdf

Vehicular emission is an important source of air pollutants in urban cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of South China. In order to study the impact of evaporative loss of vehicular fuel on air quality, several commonly used fuel samples were collected in four main cities in the PRD region &ndash; Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Macau and Zhuhai, and analyzed for their volatile organic compounds (VOCs) composition. Source profiles of vapors of the vehicular fuels used in these cities were constructed and are believed to be the first reported for the PRD region. The C<sub>8</sub>-C<sub>10</sub> hydrocarbons were the main constituents of diesel. Different from diesel, gasoline used in the PRD region was mainly comprised of lighter C<sub>4</sub>-C<sub>7</sub> hydrocarbons, with toluene and i-pentane being the two most abundant species. The toluene content in the Hong Kong and Macau gasoline samples were higher than that in Guangzhou and Zhuhai, while the reverse was true for the benzene content. The benzene levels in Guangzhou and Zhuhai exceeded the maximum allowable benzene levels for Mainland China unleaded gasoline. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) samples were collected only in Hong Kong and were comprised mainly of n-butane, propane and i-butane. Traffic samples indicated that evaporative loss and vehicular combustion were the primary contributors to elevated VOC levels in roadside atmospheres. Significant i-pentane and toluene concentrations were observed in roadside atmospheres in all four cities. Ratio of i-pentane in gasoline vapors to that in roadside samples were calculated and this showed that the degree of evaporative loss were higher in Guangzhou and Zhuhai than that in Hong Kong and Macau. We suggest the difference is due to the better maintenance and more new cars in Hong Kong and Macau. From tunnel samples collected in Hong Kong in two different years, we found that the relative amount of propane, i-butane, and n-butane increased between 2001 to 2003, consistent with the 40% increase in LPG fueled vehicles. Propane to butanes ratios were calculated for LPG samples and tunnels samples, and the comparable ratios illustrated the LPG leakages from LPG fueled vehicles crossing the tunnel.

 References Blake, D. R. and Rowland, F. S.: Urban leakage of liquefied petroleum gas and its impact on Mexico city air quality, Science, 269(5226), 953&ndash;956, 1995. Bureau of Statistics of Guangdong Province: Guangzhou Statistical Yearbook 2005, China Statistics Press, 2005. Bureau of Statistics of Guangdong Province: Statistical yearbook of Guangdong 2001, China Statistics Press, 2001. Bureau of Statistics of Guangdong Province: Statistical yearbook of Guangdong 2004, China Statistics Press, 2004. Chan, L. Y., Chu, K. W., Zou, S. C., Chan, C. Y., Wang, X. M., Barletta, B., Blake, D. R., Guo, H., and Tsai, W. Y.: Characteristics of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) in industrial, industrialurban, and industrial-suburban atmospheres of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of south China, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D11304, doi:10.1029/2005JD006481, 2006. Chan, L. Y., Lau, W. L., Zou, S. C., Cao, Z. X., and Lai, S. C.: Exposure level of carbon monoxide and respirable suspended particulate in public transportation modes while commuting in urban area of Guangzhou, China, Atmos. Environ., 36, 5831&ndash;5840, 2002. Chen, T. Y., Simpson, I. J., Blake, D. R., and Rowland, F. S.: Impact of the leakage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on Santiago air quality, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(11), 2193&ndash;2196, 2001. Colman, J. J., Swanson, A. L., Meinardi, S., Sive, B. C., Blake, D. R., and Rowland, F. S.: Description of the analysis of a wide range of volatile organic compounds in whole air samples collected during PEM-tropics A and B, Anal. Chem., 73(15), 3723&ndash;3737, 2001. Conner, T. L., Lonneman, W. A., and Seila, R. L.: Transportation-related volatile hydrocarbon source profiles measured in Atlanta, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 45, 383&ndash;394, 1995. Environmental Protection Department: Environmental Hong Kong 2001, Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2001. Environmental Protection Department: Environmental Hong Kong 2002, Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2002. Environmental Protection Department: Environmental Hong Kong 2005, Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2005. Guo, H., Wang, T., Blake, D. R., Simpson, I. J., Kwok, Y. H., and Li, Y. S.: Regional and local contributions to ambient non-methane volatile organic compounds at a polluted rural/coastal site in Pearl River Delta, China, Atmos. Environ., 40, 2345&ndash;2359, 2006. Ho, K. F., Lee, S. C., Guo, H., and Tsai, W. Y.: Seasonal and diurnal variations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere of Hong Kong, Sci. Total Environ., 322(1&ndash;3), 155&ndash;166, 2004. Lin, Y. L. and Zhao, S. G.: Future development of clean vehicle in Shenzhen, Urban Gas, (in Chinese), 363(5), 8&ndash;11, 2005. Mclaren, R. M., Gertler, A. W., Wittorff, D. N., Belzer, W., Dann, T., and Singleton, D. L.: Real-world measurements of exhaust and evaporative emissions in the Cassiar tunnel predicted by chemical mass balance modeling, Environ. Sci. Technol., 30, 3001&ndash;3009, 1996. Na, K., Kim, Y. P., Moon, I., Moon, K. C.: Chemical composition of major VOC emission sources in the Seoul atmosphere, Chemosphere, 55, 585&ndash;594, 2004. Perry, R. and Gee, I. L.: Vehicle emissions in relation to fuel composition, The Science of the Total Environment, 169, 149&ndash;156, 1995. Sive, B. C.: Atmospheric nonmethane hydrocarbons: analytical methods and estimated hydroxyl radical concentrations, PhD dissertation, University of California, Irvine, 1998. Stoeckenius, T. E., Ligocki, M. P., Shepard, S. B., and Iwamiya, R. K.: Analysis of PAMS data: application to summer 1993 Houston and Baton Rouge data, Draft report prepared by Systems Applications International, San Rafael, CA, SYSAPP 94-95/115d, November, in: USEPA report: Receptor Modeling, 2006. The Statistics and Census Service: Macau In Figure 2003, Government of Macau Special Administrative Region, 2003. Tina, C. R.: Rapid expansion of liquefied petroleum gas market in China, International Petroleum Economy, 10(5), 30&ndash;33, 2002. Transport Department: Annual Transport Digest 2001, The Transport Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2001. Transport Department: Annual Transport Digest 2002, The Transport Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2002. Transport Department: Annual Transport Digest 2004, The Transport Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2004. Traffic Department: Monthly traffic and transport digest, The Transport Department of Hong Kong SAR, 2005. Wang, S. X., Shao, M., and Zhang, Y. H.: Influence of fuel quality on vehicular NO<sub>x</sub> emissions, J. Environ. Sci., 13, 265&ndash;271, 2001.