Impact of the dropping activity with vehicle age on air pollutant emissions

Road transport is a major source of air pollution especially in cities. Detailed calculations are needed to support road transport emission inventories due to the variance of technologies and operating conditions encountered on the roads. The annual distance driven by cars in relation to their characteristics is an important variable in such calculations. In this work, a large amount of mileage data were collected from second–hand car sellers in Italy and were then analyzed in order to understand the influence of vehicle age on annual mileage driven. The available data enabled the development of dropping functions of annual mileage with vehicle age. It was found that the average mileage of 10 year old cars is only approximately 40% of the mileage driven on year one. This drops to approximately only 10% for 20–year old cars. The findings are of paramount importance in environmental calculations as road transport NOX and PM emissions drop by more than 20% when the corrected functions are used compared to using a constant mileage. Not introducing such a correction may result to an approximately 8% higher nation–wide NOX emissions with negative implications towards meeting the national emission ceilings. In terms of policy implications, the dropping activity with age results to a decrease in the importance of accelerated scrappage schemes and of environmental zones in air quality

Preparation of a Spatialised Emission Inventory as Input for Modelling

A collaborative research project between the European Commission�s Joint Research Center and the Lombardy Region, both located in Northern Italy, aims to identify the best pollution reduction strategies in this area and to set a framework solving such complex problem for whichever area in Europe. Advanced numerical air quality models (AQMs) have become an essential tool for analyzing the effect of the implementation of pollutant emission abatement strategies and for the integrated assessment modeling. Spatialized emission inventories compatible with the requirement of Eulerian chemical transport model (CTM) represent one of the most crucial issues for performing reliable air quality simulations. Therefore a spatialized atmospheric emission inventory concerning major pollutants (CO, NOx, SO2, CH4, PM10, PM2.5, NH3 and VOC) was elaborated for all regions of Northern Italy putting together information collected from the institutions in charge of emission inventories at regional and national scale. This paper will address the methodology, the steps followed and the difficulties encountered to prepare a high quality spatialized emission inventory as input to AQMs. In the case presented here, the major challenge was to include, as much as possible, bottom-up emissions information elaborated by the regional authorities. All the problems of data collection, homogenization and merge had to be faced, considering that each of the 10 Regions in Northern Italy is in charge of its own air quality plan and emission inventory. For the area of interest (570x390 km2) emission data, coming both from the regional and the Italian national emission inventories, were put together and consolidated. For the countries outside Italy, the European emission inventory (EMEP) was used. In general, two kinds of emissions data sets with different aggregation level were acquired and merged as input to the spatialized emission inventory of Northern Italy: - INEMAR (INventario EMissioni ARia) � a database created for an implementation of high-quality regional emission inventory estimating the emissions of several pollutants at municipal level mainly with a bottom-up approach. INEMAR is currently used by most of the regions in Northern Italy. - Italian national emission inventory � a database that collects and calculates all the emissions at national level and provides an estimation at provincial level applying a top-down disaggregation. Priority was given to the INEMAR emissions data at municipal level where available (i.e. fully completed for three of the Northern Italian regions and partially completed for the other regions). The rest of the data were covered by the use of the national emission inventory at provincial level, which was further disaggregated at municipal level using various proxies. The resulting emission inventory has then been spatialized on a 3x3 km grid.JRC.H.4 - Transport and air qualit

Uncertainty Estimates and Guidance for Road Transport Emission Calculations

This is the final report of a study on the characterization of the sensitivity and quantification of the uncertainty of road transport calculations performed with COPERT 4. Two case studies were examined: one referring to Italy which is considered as a country with very good knowledge of the operating vehicle stock and the total activity in its territory. The second situation refers to Poland, where some of the older vehicle technologies do not follow the European classification and this increases the uncertainty in the calculations. Other differences between the countries include the difference in ambient conditions and the much younger stock of the fleet in Italy compared to Poland. The report provides the uncertainty ranges of the COPERT 4 emission factors and modelling parameters. It also characterizes the uncertainty of the input data for Italy and Poland. The most influential variables were also identified, using a screening technique (Morris) and Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, the uncertainty of the calculations was quantified by performing over 6000 simulation runs per country. The results of the simulations have been also used to provide guidance for road transport inventory calculations, following the methods proposed in the EMEP/EEA Atmospheric Emission Inventory Guidebook.JRC.DDG.H.4 - Transport and air qualit

Effect of a Change Towards Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles on the Emissions of the Milan Waste Collection Fleet

This paper discusses the contribution of waste collection vehicles to atmospheric emissions in the metropolitan area of Milan, Italy. The emissions of the Milan Environmental Services Agency vehicle fleet are estimated for 2005¿2010. The effects of the renewal of the fleet, as well as increasing compressed natural gas usage are analysed. We find that that between 2005 and 2010, that was a reduction of 32%, 22% and 15% in PM, NOx and VOC emissions due to the refurbishment of the vehicles using conventional fuels, such as gasoline and diesel and the change to compressed natural gas. VOCs decreased less because the change to natural gas vehicles has less impact on these emissions.JRC.DDG.F.9-Sustainable Transport (Ispra

Traffic Emission Scenarios in Lombardy Region in 1998-2015

¿This study assesses and discusses the current and future contribution of road traffic to primary PM10 and PM10 main precursors (i.e. NOx,SO2,NH3, VOC) in the Lombardy region (Italy). It defines a coherent and updated set of input parameters (emission factors, mileage and fleet composition) for traffic emission estimation between 1998 and 2015. 1998¿2004 emissions are assessed basing on historical data, while 2005¿2015 rely on different hypothesis about mobility development and vehicular turnover rate. The work shows that road traffic emissions of PM10 and PM10 precursors are expected to decrease in the period 2005¿2015, with a reduction greater than 70% in scenarios with a fast vehicle turnover and a decrease in fuel usage. Increase in fuel consumption could substantially lower the emission reduction expected, off-setting a substantial part of the new technology benefits. The introduction of DPF (diesel particulate filter) vehicles will determine a reduction of PM10 exhaust, however this could potentially be stalled by the increase in diesel usage in the vehicle fleet and an increase in mileage driven, as the latter causes a rise in the contribution of PM10 from abrasion. Concerning the total atmospheric emissions in Lombardy, SO2 (-6%) and NH3 (b -2%) emission will remain constant, while PM10, VOC and NOx emission will decrease, respectively by 2¿30%, 6¿15% and 2¿32% in the period 2001¿2015.JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transpor

Impact of the dropping activity with vehicle age on air pollutant emissions

AbstractRoad transport is a major source of air pollution especially in cities. Detailed calculations are needed to support road transport emission inventories due to the variance of technologies and operating conditions encountered on the roads. The annual distance driven by cars in relation to their characteristics is an important variable in such calculations. In this work, a large amount of mileage data were collected from second–hand car sellers in Italy and were then analyzed in order to understand the influence of vehicle age on annual mileage driven. The available data enabled the development of dropping functions of annual mileage with vehicle age. It was found that the average mileage of 10 year old cars is only approximately 40% of the mileage driven on year one. This drops to approximately only 10% for 20–year old cars. The findings are of paramount importance in environmental calculations as road transport NOX and PM emissions drop by more than 20% when the corrected functions are used compared to using a constant mileage. Not introducing such a correction may result to an approximately 8% higher nation–wide NOX emissions with negative implications towards meeting the national emission ceilings. In terms of policy implications, the dropping activity with age results to a decrease in the importance of accelerated scrappage schemes and of environmental zones in air quality

Importance of Activity Data for Improving the Residential Wood Combustion Emission Inventory at Regional Level

The contribution of residential wood combustion (RWC) to emission inventory at local level was estimated using a bottom up approach for the Lombardy Region of North Italy. A survey, based on CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) method, has been undertaken through 18,000 interviews, in order to characterize the RWC use in this region, in term of both total and spatialised wood consumption. Details on the type of appliances used in RWC were also gathered. The results of the survey were then statistically analyzed in order to allow an estimate of RWC with high spatial resolution (municipal level) in relation to the size and altitude of territory. The work provides new evidence of the importance of wood combustion as a key source for PM and VOC emissions at local level, and thus the importance of technological improvements and new policies aimed at emission reduction in this sector. The large variability of PM emission factors for wood combustion (depending on type of wood, combustion devices, operation modes etc.) is an important source of uncertainty in PM emissions estimates. Considering the great differences in average PM emission factors between low efficiency appliances (fireplaces, old stoves) and high efficiency ones (new stoves, pellet burners), this work highlights the importance of achieving more detailed information on types of wood appliances used for obtaining a reliable PM emission inventory for RWC.JRC.DDG.F.9-Sustainable Transport (Ispra

Rutin/Sulfobutylether-β-Cyclodextrin as a Promising Therapeutic Formulation for Ocular Infection

Ocular pathologies present significant challenges to achieving effective therapeutic results due to various anatomical and physiological barriers. Natural products such as flavonoids, alone or in association with allopathic drugs, present many therapeutic actions including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial action. However, their clinical employment is challenging for scientists due to their low water solubility. In this study, we designed a liquid formulation based on rutin/sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (RTN/SBE-β-CD) inclusion complex for treating ocular infections. The correct stoichiometry and the accurate binding constant were determined by employing SupraFit software (2.5.120) in the UV-vis titration experiment. A deep physical–chemical characterization of the RTN/SBE-β-CD inclusion complex was also performed; it confirmed the predominant formation of a stable complex (Kc, 9660 M−1) in a 1:1 molar ratio, with high water solubility that was 20 times (2.5 mg/mL) higher than the free molecule (0.125 mg/mL), permitting the dissolution of the solid complex within 30 min. NMR studies revealed the involvement of the bicyclic flavonoid moiety in the complexation, which was also confirmed by molecular modeling studies. In vitro, the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of the formulation was assayed against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains. The results demonstrated a significant activity of the formulation than that of the free molecules

Novel Harmonization Method for Multi-Centric Radiomic Studies in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The purpose of this multi-centric work was to investigate the relationship between radiomic features extracted from pre-treatment computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, and clinical outcomes for stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). One-hundred and seventeen patients who received SBRT for early-stage NSCLC were retrospectively identified from seven Italian centers. The tumor was identified on pre-treatment free-breathing CT and PET images, from which we extracted 3004 quantitative radiomic features. The primary outcome was 24-month progression-free-survival (PFS) based on cancer recurrence (local/non-local) following SBRT. A harmonization technique was proposed for CT features considering lesion and contralateral healthy lung tissues using the LASSO algorithm as a feature selector. Models with harmonized CT features (B models) demonstrated better performances compared to the ones using only original CT features (C models). A linear support vector machine (SVM) with harmonized CT and PET features (A1 model) showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.77 (0.63–0.85) for predicting the primary outcome in an external validation cohort. The addition of clinical features did not enhance the model performance. This study provided the basis for validating our novel CT data harmonization strategy, involving delta radiomics. The harmonized radiomic models demonstrated the capability to properly predict patient prognosis