Primary Particulate Matter and Aerosol Emissions from Biodiesel Engines During Idling in Plateau Environments of China

Diesel vehicles are recognized as significant mobile sources of particulate matter emissions. As a renewable and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional fossil diesel, biodiesel offers the benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, existing research on biodiesel emissions primarily focuses on primary emissions, with a limited understanding of their impact on secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. In this study, a diesel engine test bench was employed under idle conditions using three commonly used biodiesel blends. Exhaust emissions were directly introduced into the HAP-SWFU chamber, a quartz glass smog chamber designed to characterize both primary emissions and SOA formation during the photochemical oxidation process. The black carbon and primary organic aerosol (POA) emission factors for the three biodiesel blends under idle conditions ranged from 0.31 to 0.58 g kg −1 fuel and 0.99 to 1.06 g kg −1 fuel, respectively. The particle size of exhaust particulates peaked between 20 and 30 nm, and nucleation-idle conditions were found to be the dominating mode. The SOA production factor was between 0.92 and 1.15 g kg −1 fuel, and the SOA/POA ratio ranged from 1.35 to 2.37, with an average of 1.86. This study concludes that the POA emission factor for biodiesel under idle conditions is comparable to values reported in previous studies on pure diesel exhaust, with the maximum SOA production factor reduced by 38%.