Developing an Emission Estimation Tool for Border Crossings

The main objective of the study presented in this paper was to develop a MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)-based emission estimation tool for border crossing activities. This paper focuses on the methodologies and data used to develop this spreadsheet-based emission estimation tool. The border emissions estimation tool is established as a stand-alone Microsoft Excel® tool. A large scale data collection effort was performed to provide the necessary data for this estimation tool. The data collection plan focused on collecting data on three critical parameters deemed necessary for the emission estimation tool; i.e., vehicle activity data, border crossing fleet composition, and fuel characteristics. The research team executed the data collection plan for two border crossing bridges in El Paso- Juarez Regions. Global Positioning System (GPS) units were used to collect second-by-second speed and location data for a sample of light- and heavy-duty vehicles engaged in the border crossing activity. To obtain information on the vehicle fleet mix for vehicles crossing the border crossing bridges, the research team performed an extensive vehicle license plate data collection at the target border crossing locations. To determine fuel characteristics, a total of 20 gasoline and diesel fuel samples were collected from various gas stations in El Paso and Juarez. An estimation methodology based on MOVES’ operating mode (opMode) bins emission rates was used to develop the tool. In total researchers ran MOVES 2010b for 400 different sets of conditions. The tool combines the calculated operating mode distribution with the emissions rates obtained from MOVES and the user-supplied volume data to generate estimates of emissions for the target scenario.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC20 Transportation and Air Quality.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Farzaneh, Reza (Mohamadreza)
  • Fossett, Tyler
  • Williams, Jon
  • Gu, Chaoyi
  • Wood, Nick
  • Zietsman, Josias
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data collection; Estimating; Fuels; Global Positioning System; International borders; Methodology; Pollutants; Vehicles
• Identifier Terms: Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
• Geographic Terms: El Paso (Texas); United States-Mexico Border
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Environment; Highways; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01555379
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-4906
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 27 2015 10:01AM