A comprehensive spatial and temporal vehicular emissions for northeast China

Abstract Northeast China has experienced a dramatic increase in vehicle population, along with economic development. However, information about the emissions from the transport sector is still limited. A comprehensive, detailed, and high-resolution vehicular emissions inventory for Northeast China was developed in this study. We implemented the methodology of the Chinese emissions guidelines into the open-source model VEIN to obtain emission factors adjusted by temperature, humidity, altitude, speed, fuel quality, and activity. Furthermore, we split the emission factors to obtain specific pollutant compounds with data from the European emissions guidelines. Our estimates were calibrated to match fuel consumption data from the National Statistical Yearbook (NSY) and International Energy Agency (IEA). The emissions for CO, HC, NOX, PM2.5, BC, CO2 were 1,420,212 [t·y−1], 123,861 [t·y−1], 518,181 [t·y−1], 17,118 [t·y−1], 10,645 [t·y−1] and 108,249,047 [t·y−1], respectively. The passenger cars emit approximately 80% of CO and HC, while trucks the 72% of NOX and PM2.5. The inventory was gridded with a resolution of 0.1° revealing that emissions are highly concentrated in urban centers. The results with NSY data produce a better agreement with other studies. The city with the most emissions is Shenyang, followed by Harbin, Changchun, and Dalian. The peak emissions of CO, HC, isopentane and toluene occurs at 11 years of vehicle use, while the peak for BC, CH4, PM2.5, and NOX occurs at six years of vehicle use. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first emissions inventory from the transport sector covering 133 pollutants.