Title
Brake wear from vehicles as an important source of diffuse copper pollution
Author
Hulskotte, J.H.J.
van der Gon, H.A.C.D.
Visschedijk, A.J.H.
Schaap, M.
TNO Bouw en Ondergrond
Contributor
Tanik, A. (editor)
Ozturk, I. (editor)
Yazgan, M.S. (editor)
Heath, R. (editor)
Publication year
2007
Abstract
In this article we show that brake wear from road traffic vehicles is an important source of atmospheric (participate) copper concentrations in Europe. Consequently, brake wear also contributes significantly to deposition fluxes of copper to surface waters. We estimated the copper emission due to brake wear to be 2.4 kiloton per year. For comparison, the official database for Europe (without brake wear) totals 2.6 kiloton per year. In Western Europe the brake wear emissions dominate the total emission of copper. Using the spatially resolved emission data, copper distributions over Europe were calculated with the LOTOS-EUROS model. Without brake wear the model underestimates observed copper concentrations by a factor of 3, which is in accordance with other studies. Including the brake wear emissions largely removes the bias. We find that 75% of the atmospheric copper input in the North Sea may be due to brake wear. We estimate that about 25% of the total copper input in the Dutch part of the North Sea stems from brake wear. Although the estimated brake wear copper emission is associated with a large uncertainty, it significantly improves our understanding of the copper cycle in the environment. © IWA Publishing 2007.
Subject
Environment
Atmospheric deposition
Brake wear
Copper
Emission validation
Particle emission
Automobile parts and equipment
Copper
Mathematical models
Particulate emissions
Surface waters
Atmospheric sopper concentrations
Atmspheric deposition
Brake wear emissions
Emission validation
Brakes
copper
surface water
Automobile parts and equipment
Brakes
Copper
Mathematical models
Particulate emissions
Surface waters
atmospheric deposition
copper
diffusion
estimation method
pollutant source
traffic emission
water pollution
wear
air pollution
Atlantic Ocean
atmospheric diffusion
car
conference paper
Europe
exhaust gas
geographic distribution
mathematical analysis
Netherlands
particulate matter
urban area
water analysis
water contamination
water pollutant
water pollution
water quality
Automobiles
Copper
Diffusion
Environmental Pollutants
Europe
Sewage
Time Factors
Atlantic Ocean
Eurasia
Europe
North Sea
Western Europe
To reference this document use:
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TNO identifier
240137
ISBN
1843395975
ISSN
0273-1223
Source
Water Science and Technology, 56 (1), 223-231
Document type
conference paper