Characteristics of volatile organic compounds from motorcycle exhaust emission during real-world driving

The number of motorcycles has increased significantly in Asia, Africa, Latin American and Europe in recent years due to their reasonable price, high mobility and low fuel consumption. However, motorcycles can emit significant amounts of air pollutants; therefore, the emission characteristics of motorcycles are an important consideration for the implementation of control measures for motorcycles in urban areas. Results of this study indicate that most volatile organic compound (VOC) emission factors were in the range of several decades mg/km during on-road driving. Toluene, isopentane, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, m,p-xylene, and o-xylene were the most abundant VOCs in motorcycle exhaust, with emission factors of hundreds mg/km. Motorcycle exhaust was 15.4 mg/km for 15 carbonyl species. Acetaldehyde, acetone, formaldehyde and benzaldehyde were the major carbonyl species, and their emission factors ranged from 1.4 to 3.5 mg/km 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, m,p-xylene, 1-butene, toluene, o-xylene, 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene, propene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, isoprene, m-diethylbenzene, and m-ethyltoluene were the main ozone formation potential (OFP) species, and their OFP was 200 mg-O3/km or higher.