Title
A revised estimate of copper emissions from road transport in UNECE-Europe and its impact on predicted copper concentrations
Author
Denier van der Gon, H.A.C.
Hulskotte, J.H.J.
Visschedijk, A.J.H.
Schaap, M.
TNO Bouw en Ondergrond
Publication year
2007
Abstract
Comparisons of measured and model-predicted atmospheric copper concentrations show a severe underestimation of the observed concentrations by the models. This underestimation may be (partly) due to underestimated emissions of copper to air. Since the phase out of asbestos brake lining material, the composition of brake lining material has changed and may contain up to ∼15% copper. This makes brake wear from vehicles potentially an important source of atmospheric (particulate) copper concentrations. In this paper, we reassess the copper emissions due to exhaust emissions and brake wear from road transport. Overall, our reassessments result in an estimate of total copper emission to air in UNECE-Europe of 4.0-5.5 ktonnes yr-1, which is substantially higher than the previous estimate of 2.8 ktonnes yr-1. Copper concentrations over Europe are calculated with the LOTOS-EUROS model using the revised emission data as model input. The results show that the revised emission estimates are a major step towards gap closure of predicted versus observed copper concentrations in ambient air. Brake wear emissions may be responsible for 50-75% of the total copper emissions to air for most of Western Europe. The hypothesis that road transport is an important source of copper emissions is tested and confirmed by (1) reviewing available literature data of chemically speciated PM data from road tunnel studies and (2) the gradient observed in copper concentrations from ambient PM monitoring going from rural sites to street stations. The literature review and observational data suggest that the majority of the emitted PM10 brake wear particles is in the PM2.5-10 size range. The results of this study indicate that modification of brake lining composition is an important mitigation option to reduce copper exposure of the population in Western Europe. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Subject
Environment
Brake wear
Copper
Copper concentration
Exhaust emissions
Particulate emissions
Road transport
Air pollution
Asbestos
Concentration (process)
Copper
Brake wear
Copper concentration
Exhaust emissions
Road transport
Particulate emissions
copper
ambient air
asbestos
atmospheric modeling
concentration (composition)
copper
environmental impact
estimation method
hypothesis testing
mitigation
pollution control
road transport
air monitoring
ambient air
article
atmospheric dispersion
calculation
concentration (parameters)
environmental impact assessment
Europe
exhaust gas
measurement
motor vehicle
particulate matter
prediction
priority journal
Eurasia
Europe
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TNO identifier
240534
ISSN
1352-2310
Source
Atmospheric Environment, 41 (38), 8697-8710
Document type
article