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Spatial and temporal characterization of vehicular emissions in Ecuador using VEIN

Abstract:

Air pollutants concentrations reach high levels in developing countries. However, due to the lack of measurements, too often, this problem remains unseen. In Ecuador, top-down inventories classify on-road vehicles as the main source of air pollution, as well in cities in Ecuador. In order to unveil the importance of these sources of air pollution, we developed a detailed vehicular emission for Ecuador at the province and monthly level. We used the model VEIN, which is an R+Fortran package, to estimate emissions, which can generate inputs for air quality models [1]. The activity data was retrieved from national statistics, which includes a comprehensive characterization of the circulating fleet by type of vehicle, fuel, and service. For instance, 90% of the fleet consumes gasoline, 8.5% diesel, and the rest are hybrid vehicles, GLP and electric. Also, 36% are simple passenger vehicles, 20% sport utility vehicles (SUV), 34% motorcycles, 1.5% buses and 8.5% trucks. The emission factors come from the Environmental European Agency [2] corrected for Ecuador conditions, considering deterioration and the chemical composition of fuels. Our estimations covered 12 pollutants and estimates of hot-running, cold-start, evaporative, and wear. For 2019, the total emissions in Ecuador were 109097 (t/y) for CO and 13666 (t/y) NMHC. In addition, 4-stroke motorcycles between 50 and 250 cc emitted 30% of CO and 24% of NMHC. Our results are consistent with local estimates, although global inventories overpbkp_redict emissions for Ecuador.