GCC: Northwestern/Princeton study explores air quality impacts of aggressive conversion to EVs

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GRA

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https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/04/20190415-schnell.html

. . . In a paper published in the journal Atmospheric Environment, they report on the findings from a suite of scenarios designed to quantify the effect of both the magnitude of EV market penetration and the source of electricity generation used to power them. . . .

In the study, the researchers applied a prototype version of the new-generation NOAA GFDL global Atmospheric Model, version 4,for their simulations.

To fully account for the complexity of changes to air pollution chemistry, the researchers took multiple variables into consideration:

  • Potential electric vehicles adoption rates;

    Generation of electric vehicle power supply, including the current combustion-dominant mix, combustion-only sources and enhanced emission-free renewables;

    Geographical locations; and

    Seasons and times of day.

Among the findings:

  • Summer surface ozone (O3) decreases in most locations due to widespread reductions of traffic NOx emissions.

    Summer fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases on average and largest in areas with increased coal-fired power generation demands.

    Winter O3 increases due to reduced loss via traffic NOx.

    Winter while PM2.5 decreases since larger ammonium nitrate reductions offset increases in ammonium sulfate. . . .

  • Across scenarios, we found the more cars that transitioned to electric power, the better for summertime ozone levels. No matter how the power is generated, the more combustion cars you take off the road, the better the ozone quality.

    —first author Jordan Schnell, a postdoc with the Ubben Program for Climate and Carbon Science in the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern
Particulate matter decreased in the wintertime but showed greater variation based on location and how the power was generated. Locations with more coal-fired power in their energy mix experienced an increase in PM during the summer. Locations with clean energy sources, however, saw reductions. . . .[/list]
Direct link to article abstract (Paywall for article):
Air quality impacts from the electrification of light-duty passenger vehicles in the United States
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231019302183?via=ihub
 
LeftieBiker said:
Winter while PM2.5 decreases since larger ammonium nitrate reductions offset increases in ammonium sulfate. . . .

Eh?
I know it's clumsy, and meant to highlight that. The abstract makes it clear that "Winter" just shows the season referred to. Eliminating it, replacing the period after NOx with a comma and tacking the rest of the sentence onto the preceding one, it makes perfect sense:
Winter O3 increases due to reduced loss via traffic NOx, while PM2.5 decreases since larger ammonium nitrate reductions offset increases in ammonium sulfate.
 
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