A Review on the Characteristics of Air Pollutants Emitted from Passenger Cars in Korea

On-road source emissions are major air pollutants and have been associated with serious health effects in Seoul metropolis. Thus, it is of fundamental importance to have an accurate assessment of vehicle emissions in order to implement an effective air quality management policy. As a result, there is a need to overview vehicle emission characteristics of air pollutants. This article discusses vehicle exhaust sampling and chemical analysis, emission characteristics of air pollutants, and emission regulations from passenger cars. The vehicle exhaust sampling and chemical analysis methods were described in particulate matter and gaseous compounds. In this article, chassis dynamometer, measurement instrumentation for nano-particulate matter and carbon compounds analysis device were described. For the gasoline and diesel vehicles, the effective parameters of emissions were average vehicle speed, vehicle mileage and model year. The particle number emissions for diesel nano-particles were sensitive to the sampling conditions. Also, the particle number emissions with a diesel particle filter (DPF) largely reduced rather than those without it. This article also describes different emission characteristics of air pollutants according to biodiesel or bioethanol mixing ratio. The Korean emission standards for passenger cars were compared with those of the US and EU. Finally, the objective is to give an overview of relevant background information on emission characteristics of air pollutants from passenger cars in Korea.