The problem of evaluation of individual persistent organic pollutants emissions from road transport (Illustrated by the case of Odessa industrial-and-urban agglomeration)

Abstract

One of the main environmental polluters, especially in large cities of Ukraine, is road transport. In particular, road transport is one of the main sources of persistent organic pollutants in the environment. Therefore, monitoring of air pollution by road transport is one of the most relevant questions in Ukraine, especially considering its intentions to join the European Union. Analysis of the regulatory and legislative frameworks of Ukraine shows that, unfortunately, today, there are no regulatory documents that motivate to reduce the load of mobile sources, including road transport, on the environment. Moreover, even though the only methodology for calculating pollutant emissions from mobile sources expired in 2015, no new methodology has been developed yet. This paper calculates the masses of pollutants formed during the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuel, and proves the necessity to take into consideration persistent organic pollutants when assessing the toxicity of exhaust fumes, considering their cumulative effect and half-life. The calculation was performed according to European and national (Ukrainian) methodologies, which are supplemented by the calculation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) formation. Using the relative hazard factor, the relative masses of these substances are calculated, the obtained masses of all components of the exhaust fumes are ranked, the contribution of each component to the toxicity of emissions is revealed. Using emission factors, the specific emissions of these persistent organic pollutants during the combustion of diesel fuel, gasoline, liquefied and compressed gases are calculated. By the results, the types of organic fuels with the highest priority for use by mobile sources are identified.