Modeling evaporative emissions from parked gasoline cars based on vehicle carbon canister experiments

Hiroo Hata; Hiroyuki Yamada; Koich Yanai; Masahiko Kugata; Genta Noumura; Kenichi Tonokura

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.112

Modeling evaporative emissions from parked gasoline cars based on vehicle carbon canister experiments

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jul 20:675:679-685. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.112. Epub 2019 Apr 10.

Authors

Hiroo Hata¹, Hiroyuki Yamada², Koich Yanai³, Masahiko Kugata³, Genta Noumura⁴, Kenichi Tonokura⁴

Affiliations

¹ Tokyo Metropolitan Research Institute for Environmental Protection, 1-7-5, Sinsuna, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136-0075, Japan; Department of Environment Systems, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563, Japan. Electronic address: hata-h@tokyokankyo.jp.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, 5 Senjyu-Asahimachi, Adachi-ku, Tokyo 120-8551, Japan.
³ Tokyo Metropolitan Research Institute for Environmental Protection, 1-7-5, Sinsuna, Koto-ku, Tokyo 136-0075, Japan.
⁴ Department of Environment Systems, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8563, Japan.

PMID: 31039502
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.112

Abstract

A time-step model was constructed to estimate the amount of evaporative emissions from vehicular diurnal breathing loss (DBL) on the basis of fuel adsorption-desorption experiments for several carbon canisters attached to seven gasoline vehicles using a chassis dynamometer. Experimental results showed that the canister's total volatile organic compound (VOC) storage ability is proportional to the canister volume, and a canister's desorption ability strongly depends on the amount of VOC trapped in the canister and the air purge flow rate of each vehicle. These properties were formulated into equations by regression analysis and used with the material balance inside the canister to propose a model for estimating emissions after carbon canister breakthrough, which are a function of a vehicle's driving and parking frequency. The model was applied to DBL experimental results derived from our previous studies to confirm its validity. Better agreement between the model and the previous experimental results was obtained when appropriate parameters were set. The proposed model is expected to contribute to estimating the VOC emission inventory for gasoline vehicles.

Keywords: Charcoal canister; Chassis dynamometer; Diurnal breathing loss; Evaporative emission; Gasoline vehicle.