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Many developing countries experience serious air pollution, especially in their urban centers, and emission sources often include the transportation sector. Several countries still use leaded gasoline and/or high sulfur fuels, which impair vehicle emission controls or prevent their use. The Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) was created at the United Nations to help developing countries eliminate lead in gasoline, phase down fuel sulfur and concurrently introduce cleaner vehicles as a way to reduce emissions. The PCFV was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 2002 as a public-private collaborative effort designed to help developing countries achieve greater progress towards their air quality goals. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) hosts the partnership Clearinghouse, and its partners consist of governments, industry, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

As part of a multi-year program known as the ‘ECD Technology Validation Study’, which was conducted over the past few years (1999-2003) detailed data were obtained on the chemical characteristics of PM from diesel fueled trucks and buses operated with and without various after-treatment devices. This study has been conducted collaboratively by industry, federal, state and local government agencies, along with academic research institutions. Descriptive presentations of the results of the various phases of this study have been previously reported. The current study offers further insight into the data by investigating finer details of the association between the various chemical species and classes of compounds characterized. This paper provides an approach to such detailed analyses by using the chemical speciation data from the ECD Technology Validation Study (SAE2002-01-2873) as a case study.

A study was performed in the spring of 2001 to chemically characterize exhaust emissions from trucks and buses fueled by various test fuels and operated with and without diesel particle filters. This study was part of a multi-year technology validation program designed to evaluate the emissions impact of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuels and passive diesel particle filters (DPF) in several different heavy-duty vehicle fleets operating in Southern California. The overall study of exhaust chemical composition included organic compounds, inorganic ions, individual elements, and particulate matter in various size-cuts. Detailed descriptions of the overall technology validation program and chemical speciation methodology have been provided in previous SAE publications (2002-01-0432 and 2002-01-0433).

A recently completed program was developed to evaluate ultra-low sulfur diesel fuels and passive diesel particle filters (DPF) in several different truck and bus fleets operating in Southern California. The primary test fuels, ECD and ECD-1, are produced by ARCO, a BP company, and have less than 15 ppm sulfur content. A test fleet comprised of heavy-duty trucks and buses were retrofitted with one of two types of catalyzed diesel particle filters, and operated for one year. As part of this program, a chemical characterization study was performed in the spring of 2001 to compare the exhaust emissions using the test fuels with and without aftertreatment. A detailed speciation of volatile organic hydrocarbons (VOC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), nitro-PAH, carbonyls, polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorodibenzo-p-furans (PCDF), inorganic ions, elements, PM10, and PM2.5 in diesel exhaust was performed for a select set of vehicles.