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Citation
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HERO ID
5616877
Reference Type
Journal Article
Title
Air quality impacts from the electrification of light-duty passenger vehicles in the United States
Author(s)
Chen, H; Dai, Z; Jager, H; Wullschleger, SD; Xu, J; Schnell, JL; Naik, V; Horowitz, LW; Paulot, F; Ginoux, P; Zhao, M; Horton, DE
Year
2019
Is Peer Reviewed?
1
Journal
Atmospheric Environment
ISSN:
1352-2310
EISSN:
1873-2844
Volume
208
Page Numbers
95-102
DOI
10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.04.003
Web of Science Id
WOS:000467661500009
Relationship(s)
has erratum
6671436
(vol 208, pg 95, 2019)
Abstract
A central strategy in achieving greenhouse gas mitigation targets is the transition of vehicles from internal combustion engines to electric power. However, due to complex emission sources and nonlinear chemistry, it is unclear how such a shift might impact air quality. Here we apply a prototype version of the new-generation NOAA GFDL global Atmospheric Model, version 4 (GFDL AM4) to investigate the impact on U.S. air quality from an aggressive conversion of internal combustion vehicles to battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs). We examine a suite of scenarios designed to quantify the effect of both the magnitude of EV market penetration and the source of electricity generation used to power them. We find that summer surface ozone (O-3) decreases in most locations due to widespread reductions of traffic NO,, emissions. Summer fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases on average and largest in areas with increased coal-fired power generation demands. Winter O-3 increases due to reduced loss via traffic NOx while PM2.5 decreases since larger ammonium nitrate reductions offset increases in ammonium sulfate. The largest magnitude changes are simulated at the extremes of the probability distribution. Increasing the fraction of vehicles converted to EVs further decreases summer O-3, while increasing the fraction of electricity generated by "emission-free" sources largely eliminates the increases in summer PM2.5 at high EV adoption fractions. Ultimately, the number of conventional vehicles replaced by EVs has a larger effect on O-3 than PM2.5, while the source of the electricity for those EVs exhibit greater control on PM2.5.
Keywords
Electric vehicles; Air quality; Ozone; Particulate matter; Chemistry model
Tags
IRIS
•
Nitrate/Nitrite
LitSearch Update 2018/1/1 - 2022/8/17
WoS
•
ISA-PM (2019)
PM RTC
•
LitSearch-NOx (2024)
TIAB Screening
Atmospheric
Round 1
Include
Round 2
Sources
Exclude
Other
•
Third Biofuels Report to Congress
10% to 20%
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