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Estimation of global vehicular methyl bromide emissions: Extrapolation from a case study in Santiago, Chile
Author(s) -
Chen TaiYih,
Blake Donald R.,
Lopez Jimena P.,
Rowland F. Sherwood
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1998gl900214
Subject(s) - gasoline , morning , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , combustion , extrapolation , meteorology , bromide , environmental chemistry , chemistry , geography , physics , mathematics , statistics , organic chemistry , astronomy
Between June 1 and June 8, 1996, 144 whole air samples were collected in Santiago, Chile. The temporal and geographical enhancement of CH 3 Br correlated with incomplete combustion tracers emitted from vehicles during the morning commute. From these, a city‐wide CH 3 Br/CO volume emission ratio of 2.2 × 10 −6 was measured in ambient air. Without using the CO measurements, we estimate an annual release of 8.9 tons of CH 3 Br in Santiago based solely upon enhanced concentrations observed throughout the study area during the morning traffic period. This enhancement corresponds to 8.0 × 10 −6 kg CH 3 Br emitted for each liter of gasoline used (leaded and unleaded). By scaling the annual gasoline usage in Santiago to countries still using leaded gasoline, and assuming the above 8.0 × 10 −6 kg/L value holds true, a global vehicular CH 3 Br emission of 4 ± 3 Gg/year is calculated. This small vehicular CH 3 Br emission source strength will not improve the current CH 3 Br budget imbalance.