Off-road vehicles: a comparison of emissions with those from road transport

Current legislation on the limitation of emissions into air from mobile machinery only provides for on-road vehicles. Mobile machinery, normally used under off-road conditions (e.g. for construction, earthmoving, agriculture, forestry, material handling, recreation, marine purposes, etc.) is not yet covered. The European Commission is now planning to develop legislation for this sector with regard to the potentially substantial emissions of this category. For this purpose, emission data displayed in a way appropriate for the drafting of legislation are needed. This paper presents the results of a study focusing on: (1) the definition of a methodology for the estimation of off-road emissions; (2) the provision of factors for the emissions of the pollutants NOx, NMVOC, CH4, CO, N2O, NH3, diesel particulates (PM) and for fuel consumption (FC); and (3) the presentation of emission estimates for the ‘Off-road’ sector in EU 12. The paper compares ‘off-road’ and ‘on-road’ emissions. The results confirm that off-road emissions are a significant source of air pollution, particularly of NOx and NMVOC. Off-road emissions should therefore become part of EU-wide legislation. However, the database for emission estimates is still quite poor, Action is needed to improve data reliability.