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Nature communications
09 11, 2020;11 (1): 4588.

Methane emissions from natural gas vehicles in China.

Lei Tao, Kang Sun, Levi M Golston, David J Miller, Tong Zhu, Yue Qin, Yan Zhang, Denise L Mauzerall, Mark A Zondlo
Author Information
  1. Da Pan: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. dp7@princeton.edu. ORCID
  2. Lei Tao: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
  3. Kang Sun: Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA. ORCID
  4. Levi M Golston: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
  5. David J Miller: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. ORCID
  6. Tong Zhu: State Key Joint Laboratory for Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, 100871, Beijing, China.
  7. Yue Qin: Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. ORCID
  8. Yan Zhang: Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA. ORCID
  9. Denise L Mauzerall: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
  10. Mark A Zondlo: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. mzondlo@princeton.edu. ORCID
PMID: 32917876 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18141-0

Abstract

Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) have been promoted in China to mitigate air pollution, yet our measurements and analyses show that NGV growth in China may have significant negative impacts on climate change. We conducted real-world vehicle emission measurements in China and found high methane emissions from heavy-duty NGVs (90% higher than current emission limits). These emissions have been ignored in previous emission estimates, leading to biased results. Applying our observations to life-cycle analyses, we found that switching to NGVs from conventional vehicles in China has led to a net increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2000. With scenario analyses, we also show that the next decade will be critical for China to reverse the trend with the upcoming China VI standard for heavy-duty vehicles. Implementing and enforcing the China VI standard is challenging, and the method demonstrated here can provide critical information regarding the fleet-level CH emissions from NGVs.

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