Aarhus Universitets segl

No. 780: Heavy Metal Emissions for Danish Road Transport.

Winther, M. & Slentø, E. 2010: Heavy Metal Emissions for Danish Road Transport. National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University, Denmark. 99 pp. – NERI Technical Report no. 780.

Summary

Introduction
This report presents new heavy metal emission factors for cars, vans, trucks, buses, mopeds and motorcycles, for each of the emission sources fuel consumption, engine oil, tyre wear, brake wear and road abrasion. The emission components covered are Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu), Mercury (Hg), Nickel (Ni), Lead (Pb), Selenium (Se) and Zinc (Zn), all of them relevant for emission reporting to the UNECE CLRTAP (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Long Range Transboundary Pollutants) convention. The report also presents a new Danish inventory for the year 2007.

Method
The heavy metal contents in fuel and engine oil used in the present study are based on measurement data from the European research organisation CONCAWE for fuel and information from key experts for engine oil. The fuel consumption pr km comes from the existing Danish emission inventory, and functions for engine oil consumption are established based on key expert information. The product of fuel/engine oil consumption pr km and the associated heavy metal content values make up the heavy metal emission factors. For each vehicle category total emissions are calculated as the product of emission factors and total mileage.

For tyre wear the present survey mainly uses information of wear rates pr vehicle type provided by the Danish Tyre Trade Environmental Foundation. This information has been combined with literature values for airborne fractions of worn particulate matter and heavy metal content in tyre material in order to estimate kilometre related emission factors for heavy metals. For each vehicle category total emissions are calculated as the product of emission factors and total mileage.

For brake wear and road abrasion pr vehicle type the kilometre based emission factors for airborne particulate matter come from the existing Danish non exhaust emission inventory. The product of these emission factors and literature values for heavy metal content in brake lining/road asphalt material make up the kilometre related emission factors for heavy metals. For each vehicle category total emissions are calculated as the product of emission factors and total mileage.

Results
For the list of heavy metal components, the following emissions in total TSP (in brackets) are calculated for the year 2007: As (8 kg), Cd (48 kg), Cr (197 kg), Cu (51 779 kg), Hg (28 kg), Ni (158 kg), Pb (6 989 kg), Se (33 kg) and Zn (28 556 kg).

The specific vehicle category activity/emission source category combinations and the related emission factors determine the total emissions for each vehicle type/emission source.

Table ES1 Total heavy metal emissions (kg) pr vehicle type for Denmark in 2007 calculated in the present study. 

Vehicle

Cars

Vans

Trucks

Trucks

Trucks

Trucks

Emission
component

 

 

Gasoline

3.5-7.5 t.

7.5-16 t.

16-32 t.

As

3.845

2.018

0.005

0.146

0.098

0.637

Cd

28.753

9.946

0.018

0.589

0.390

2.764

Cr

109.389

37.879

0.131

3.472

2.378

16.271

Cu

31 259.785

18 321.180

3.045

104.072

67.594

412.694

Hg

17.003

4.936

0.016

0.149

0.169

1.742

Ni

79.464

34.839

0.084

2.729

1.853

12.681

Pb

4 301.144

2 462.325

0.315

9.085

6.152

41.757

Se

14.755

7.929

0.014

0.469

0.369

2.937

Zn

14 347.945

6 807.679

8.479

350.512

273.864

2 224.187

Continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vehicle

Trucks

Urban buses

Coaches

Mopeds

Motorcycles

Total

Emission
component

>32t.

 

 

 

 

 

As

0.700

0.335

0.175

0.019

0.060

8.038

Cd

2.973

1.163

0.730

0.024

0.281

47.629

Cr

18.270

5.026

2.895

0.223

1.242

197.177

Cu

436.501

402.757

207.143

154.802

409.404

51 778.976

Hg

2.480

0.793

0.456

0.038

0.250

28.030

Ni

13.902

7.290

4.019

0.274

1.171

158.306

Pb

45.691

29.336

15.891

20.744

56.640

6 989.079

Se

3.500

1.352

0.739

0.098

0.408

32.570

Zn

2 632.965

1 021.562

582.966

57.048

248.947

28 556.153

Pr vehicle type cars are the most important source of emission for all heavy metal species, followed by vans, trucks, buses and 2-wheelers. However, the car emissions shares that range between 62 % (Pb) and 46 % (Se), are somewhat smaller than the share of total mileage. Trucks and buses use more fuel and engine oil pr kilometre driven, and have higher emission factors for brake, tyre and road wear, with Pb and Cu as an exception for brake wear.

Table ES2 Total heavy metal emissions (kg) pr source category for Denmark in 2007 calculated in the present study.

Emission component

Fuel

Engine oil

Tyre wear

Brake wear

Road abrasion

Total

As

0.8

-

0.8

6.5

-

8.0

Cd

0.5

39.4

2.5

5.2

0.1

47.6

Cr

31.6

65.0

3.4

74.5

22.7

197.2

Cu

21.7

106.5

14.8

51 624.6

11.4

51 779.0

Hg

28.0

-

-

-

0.1

28.0

Ni

4.5

39.4

24.2

72.1

18.2

158.3

Pb

3.3

173.5

76.3

6 682.2

53.8

6 989.1

Se

0.6

-

18.9

13.0

-

32.6

Zn

101.0

7 876.2

9 491.7

11 000.9

86.5

28 556.2

Almost all Hg emissions (100 % as a rounded share) come from fuel usage, and for Cr and As the emission shares are 16 and 9 %, respectively. For fuel all other emission shares are insignificant (between 0 % and 3 %).

For engine oil the largest emission shares are noted for Cd (83 %) and engine oil also has substantial emission shares of Cr (33 %), Zn (28 %) and Ni (25 %).

For tyre wear the most important emissions are Se (58 %), Zn (33 %) and Ni (15 %).

Brake wear is the most important source of emissions for Cu (100 %), Pb (96 %), As (82 %), Ni (46 %), Zn (39 %) and Cr (37 %). For Se the brake wear emission share is 40 %.

For road abrasion the most important emission species are Cr (12 %) and Ni (11 %). The road abrasion emission shares of other emission components are between 0 % and 1 %.

Conclusion
Set in relation to a revised Danish emission budget, road transport (emission shares in brackets) is a key source for Cu (95 %), Zn (54 %) and Pb (53 %), and of some relevance for Cr (15 %). For the remaining emission components, road transport is only a small source of emission.

The road transport emissions of Cu and Pb almost solely originate from brake wear, also being the most dominating source for Cr. For Zn, brake and tyre wear are almost equally important sources. Consequently, brake wear, and secondly tyre wear, are the most relevant road transport sources to address, in order to reduce the Danish grand totals.

Important outcomes of the present project are the proposed heavy metal emission factors and calculated 2007 emission estimates pr fuel type and vehicle type, for each of the five emission sources; fuel and engine oil consumption, vehicle tyre and brake wear and road abrasion. The gathered information of heavy metal content pr unit of consumption/emission has been essential for the establishment of emission factors for each of the five sources of emissions.

For the exhaust based emissions related to fuel and engine oil consumption it is a big improvement to have two separate sets of emission factors based on new information of heavy metal content. Until now, bulk emission factors related to the total fuel consumption have been used. By treating the sources separately updates of emission factors and calculated totals become easier, if new emission knowledge become available.

As regards the wear related emissions, the wear rate and airborne fraction of the worn material, and the associated heavy metal content determine the resulting heavy metal emission factors. For tyre wear, the new factors for raw particulate emissions are regarded as being more precise than the ones used in the previous Danish non-exhaust emission inventory, since weight, wear percentage and tyre life times are provided by Danish experts in the tyre business.

The wear rates and airborne fractions of worn material for brakes, especially for heavy duty vehicles and for road abrasion in general, are regarded as uncertain. However, the outcome of the literature study did not bring any new information, which justifies any update of the particulate emission factors from the existing Danish inventory. These latter factors and the associated heavy metal content of worn material determine the heavy metal emission factors proposed in the present report.

Most importantly for the Cu and Pb metal content of brake material used by trucks and buses, there is a big difference between the figures used in the present study and averages based on other literature values. The metal content values used in this report for trucks and buses are very low, and rely on scarce data. The data differences point out the need for data updates, when new information become available.

By using the detailed emission factors and inventory calculation methods established in the present project, estimates of heavy metal emissions can be made for other years than 2007. The emission factors are independent from inventory year and the emissions for each source/fuel/-vehicle type combination are calculated as the product of the specific emission factor and the relevant inventory year specific activity data; fuel or engine oil consumption or total mileage.

Full report in pdf (1,92 MB)