A Pilot Study of Fuel Impacts on PM Emissions from Light-Duty Gasoline Vehicles

Abstract

A pilot study was performed to explore the effects of PM Index, low and high molecular weight aromatics, and ethanol content on particulate matter (PM) emissions from light-duty Tier 2 gasoline vehicles. Four test vehicles from model years 2007-2009 were tested on seven fuels spanning PM Index values from 0.9 to 2.7, aromatic content from 14 to 38%, and ethanol content from 0 to 15%. Three of the test vehicles were port fuel injected (PFI) while the fourth featured gasoline direct injection (GDI). In an earlier program, two of the PFI vehicles demonstrated high sensitivity of PM emissions to fuel property changes while the third showed low sensitivity. The sensitivity of the GDI vehicle to fuel property changes was not known prior to this study. The vehicles were tested over the LA92 and US06 test cycles at 24°C (75°F). PM and regulated gaseous emissions were measured by test phase. Second-by-second tailpipe soot emissions were measured using the AVL Micro Soot Sensor. The results of this study support the theory behind the PM Index that low volatility compounds, particularly heavy aromatics, have the strongest influence on PM emissions from gasoline vehicles. In addition, the presence of ethanol was found to have a reinforcing interaction with PM Index in PFI vehicles, consistent with results reported in a companion paper [1]. The GDI vehicle generally produced higher PM emissions than the PFI vehicles, most notably during operation on the lower-PM-Index fuels.