Evaluation of solid particle number and black carbon for very low particulate matter emissions standards in light-duty vehicles

ABSTRACTTo reliably measure at the low particulate matter (PM) levels needed to meet California’s Low Emission Vehicle (LEV III) 3- and 1-mg/mile particulate matter (PM) standards, various approaches other than gravimetric measurement have been suggested for testing purposes. In this work, a feasibility study of solid particle number (SPN, d50 = 23 nm) and black carbon (BC) as alternatives to gravimetric PM mass was conducted, based on the relationship of these two metrics to gravimetric PM mass, as well as the variability of each of these metrics. More than 150 Federal Test Procedure (FTP-75) or Supplemental Federal Test Procedure (US06) tests were conducted on 46 light-duty vehicles, including port-fuel-injected and direct-injected gasoline vehicles, as well as several light-duty diesel vehicles equipped with diesel particle filters (LDD/DPF). For FTP tests, emission variability of gravimetric PM mass was found to be slightly less than that of either SPN or BC, whereas the opposite was observed for US06...