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Emission Rates for Light-Duty Truck Towing Operations in Real-World Conditions
Citation:
Bumsik, Kim, R. Jaikumar, R. Souza, M. xu, J. Johnson, C. Fulper, J. Faircloth, M. Venugopal, C. Gu, T. Ramani, M. Aldridge, R. Baldauf, A. Fernandez, T. Long, R. Snow, C. Williams, R. Logan, AND H. Vreeland. Emission Rates for Light-Duty Truck Towing Operations in Real-World Conditions. ATMOSPHERE. MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, , 0, (2025). https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16060749
Impact/Purpose:
Light-duty trucks are attributed as a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. transportation sector and truck emissions can have various adverse effects on air quality and human health. Existing emission estimates for light-duty trucks do not account for off-cycle operations such as towing trailers. This paper examines tailpipe emissions generated by light-duty trucks during towing and non-towing operations and then compares measured emission rates to MOVES3 modeled estimates. This work provides insight into off-cycle emissions generated by light-duty trailer towing activities that can be used to improve air quality modeling.
Description:
Light-duty trucks (LDTs) are often used to tow trailers. Towing increases the load on the engine and this additional load can affect exhaust emissions. Although heavy-duty vehicle towing impacts are widely studied, data on LDT towing impacts is sparse. In this study, portable emissions monitoring systems (PEMS) were used to measure in-use emissions from three common types of LDTs during towing and non-towing operations. Emission rates were characterized based on different operating modes as defined in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) MOVES (MOtor Vehicle Emissions Simulator) model. Results highlight a trend of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) emission rates when towing a trailer compared to non-towing operations for the three LDTs across nearly all operating modes, while nitrogen oxide (NOx) trends varied widely by operating mode and by vehicle. Both CO and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions saw distinct increases while towing a trailer in the higher operating mode bins. Although emissions were observed to be notably higher in a handful of scenarios, results also indicate that three similar LDTs can have distinctly different emission profiles.
