Comparison of black carbon measurement techniques for marine engine emissions using three marine fuel types

Abstract

Black carbon (BC) mass concentration from internal combustion engines can be quantified using a variety of different BC measurement techniques. We compare the relative response of several commercial instruments with different measurement principles to different types of marine exhaust emissions. Exhaust samples were generated using a high-speed 4-stroke marine diesel engine at various engine operating conditions from low to high engine loads. Three different fuel types—diesel, distillate marine oil grade A (DMA) and intermediate fuel oil (IFO)—were used to generate soot particles with a wide range of physical, chemical and optical properties. Based on the standard deviation of the results at all engine conditions evaluated in the present study, the overall spread between the instruments was 24% for diesel, 30% for DMA and 37% for IFO samples. For samples with extremely high organic content (at 10% engine power), the agreement was poor and the standard deviation of the mass concentrations estimated from different instruments was 50% for diesel with OC/EC ≈ 45 and 72% for DMA with OC/EC ≈280. For IFO particles, more scattered mass concentrations were reported by different instruments at all engine loads, possibly due to very complex chemical composition and different optical properties in comparison with well-characterized soot particles. We explain the differences in reported values by combining information on exhaust composition with the measurement principles used in each instrument.

Editor:

• Jason Olfert

Acknowledgments

Holger Radloff at the University of Rostock is acknowledged for providing a source of BC typical of marine engines and fuels, for their help throughout the campaign and for their hospitality. Daniel Clavel, Simon-Alexandre Lussier, Brett Smith and Robert Sawchuck are acknowledged for their work preparing the instruments for the campaign and data analysis. Brett Smith is acknowledged for the EUSAAR_2 TOA. Aerosol d.o.o. (Ljubljana, Slovenia) is gratefully acknowledged for providing the DRI Model 2015 carbon analyzer for the Chair of Analytical Chemistry at University of Rostock. Dr. Monica Tutuianu is acknowledged for operating and analyzing the data from the two AVL instruments.

Additional information

Funding

CE Delft and the Öko-Institut e.V. are acknowledged for helping in organizing the campaign. The measurement campaign was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB), the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and Transport Canada. HC acknowledges funding from the Helmholtz International Lab “aeroHEALTH” (InterLabs-0005).