High Gaseous Nitrous Acid (HONO) Emissions from Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles

Nitrous acid (HONO) plays an important role in the budget of hydroxyl radical (•OH) in the atmosphere. Vehicular emissions are a crucial primary source of atmospheric HONO, yet remain poorly investigated, especially for diesel trucks. In this study, we developed a novel portable online vehicular HONO exhaust measurement system featuring an innovative dilution technique. Using this system coupled with a chassis dynamometer, we for the first time investigated the HONO emission characteristics of 17 light-duty diesel trucks (LDDTs) and 16 light-duty gasoline vehicles in China. Emissions of HONO from LDDTs were found to be significantly higher than previous studies and gasoline vehicles tested in this study. The HONO emission factors of LDDTs decrease significantly with stringent control standards: 1.85 ± 1.17, 0.59 ± 0.25, and 0.15 ± 0.14 g/kg for China III, China IV, and China V, respectively. In addition, we found poor correlations between HONO and NOx emissions, which indicate that using the ratio of HONO to NOx emissions to infer HONO emissions might lead to high uncertainty of HONO source budget in previous studies. Lastly, the HONO emissions are found to be influenced by driving conditions, highlighting the importance of conducting on-road measurements of HONO emissions under real-world driving conditions. More direct measurements of the HONO emissions are needed to improve the understanding of the HONO emissions from mobile and other primary sources.