Methane emissions from natural gas vehicles in China.

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Abstract

Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) have been promoted in China to mitigate air pollution, yet our measurements and analyses show that NGV growth in China may have significant negative impacts on climate change. We conducted real-world vehicle emission measurements in China and found high methane emissions from heavy-duty NGVs (90% higher than current emission limits). These emissions have been ignored in previous emission estimates, leading to biased results. Applying our observations to life-cycle analyses, we found that switching to NGVs from conventional vehicles in China has led to a net increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2000. With scenario analyses, we also show that the next decade will be critical for China to reverse the trend with the upcoming China VI standard for heavy-duty vehicles. Implementing and enforcing the China VI standard is challenging, and the method demonstrated here can provide critical information regarding the fleet-level CH4 emissions from NGVs.

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Journal

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Nat Commun

Title: Nature communications

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

ISSN (Electronic): 2041-1723

ISSN (Print): 2041-1723

Publication date (Electronic): Sep 11 2020

Volume: 11

Issue: 1

Affiliations

[1 ] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. dp7@princeton.edu.

[2 ] Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and The Environmental, NSF-ERC, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. dp7@princeton.edu.

[3 ] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.

[4 ] Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and The Environmental, NSF-ERC, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.

[5 ] Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA.

[6 ] Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water (RENEW) Institute, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA.

[7 ] Currently at Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY, 10010, USA.

[8 ] State Key Joint Laboratory for Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China.

[9 ] Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.

[10 ] Sustainability Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.

[11 ] Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.

[12 ] Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.

[13 ] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. mzondlo@princeton.edu.

[14 ] Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and The Environmental, NSF-ERC, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. mzondlo@princeton.edu.

Article

Publisher Item ID: 10.1038/s41467-020-18141-0

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18141-0

PMC ID: 7486943

PubMed ID: 32917876

SO-VID: 6a0c6447-84fd-473e-a132-eb0b7f74f026

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