Evaluating real-world emissions of light-duty gasoline vehicles with deactivated three-way catalyst converters

Three-way catalyst (TWC) converter is one of the most important after-treatment device for modern light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGVs), which can efficiently control exhaust emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), total hydrocarbons (THC) and nitrogen oxides (NOX). Nevertheless, a considerable part of in-use taxis in Beijing would operate with TWC purposely removed, which have been indicated by vehicular on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems. In light of high vehicle-use intensity for taxis, we recruited three China 4 non-TWC taxis and three China 4 normal taxis in a comparative experimental test by using a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). The results indicated that non-TWC taxis emitted significantly higher emissions of air pollutants than normal taxis with TWC functioning. For example, average emission factors of non-TWC vehicles were comparable to emission levels of China 1 LDGVs measured in previous studies. By contrast, emissions from normal China 4 taxis were all below China 4 emission limits. Furthermore, an operating mode binning method and a micro-trip approach have been employed to link vehicle emissions with driving conditions. For non-TWC taxis, we identified strong correlations of all pollutant categories between emission factors and average speed. However, such correlations for normal taxis were less strong, in particular for CO and THC emissions that were hardly sensitive to speed changes. This phenomenon indicates that the role of traffic conditions in affecting real-world emissions would become weaker when TWC can effectively mitigate emissions. This paper highlights the importance of in-use emission inspection to avoid any “high emitters” that have violated regulation enforcement.