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SPECIATE Version 4.5 Database Development Documentation
Citation:
Hsu, Y., F. Divita, AND J. Dorn. SPECIATE Version 4.5 Database Development Documentation. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-16/294, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
SPECIATE is the EPA’s repository of volatile organic gas and particulate matter (PM) speciation profiles of air pollution source emissions. Its latest version, SPECIATE 4.4, was released February 2014 and includes 5,728 profiles for PM, volatile organic gas, and other gases profiles. Emission inventories provide a foundation for air quality management and demonstrating attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). One must accurately estimate anthropogenic and biogenic emission sources for an area in order to develop relevant and cost-effective emission control measures and correctly model NAAQS attainment demonstrations. SPECIATE is an important component of this foundation and is used to develop speciated emission inventories for regional haze, PM, greenhouse gas (GHG), and photochemical air quality modeling; estimate hazardous and toxic air pollutant emissions from PM and organic gas primary emissions; provide input to the Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) receptor model; and to verify profiles derived from ambient measurements by multivariate receptor models. SPECIATE’s approach is to identify, evaluate, and prioritize high quality emission speciation profiles for entry into the database. This prioritization is driven by the input of SPECIATE workgroup members from OAQPS, OTAQ, NRMRL and NERL. In particular, it reflects the needs of those organizations providing funding during a given fiscal year. The highest priority profiles are added to SPECIATE as resources allow. Approximately every two years, an updated version of SPECIATE is released to the public after QA and peer review and administrative approval. The next public release, SPECIATE 4.5, is due in the 4th quarter of FY 2016. SPECIATE 4.5 will add over 100 new emission profiles for oil and natural gas production, biomass combustion, mobile, and other sources important to the emission inventory and modeling communities.
Description:
This product updated SPECIATE 4.4 with new emission profiles to address high priority Agency data gaps and to included new, more accurate emission profiles generated by research underway within and outside the Agency.