International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2016, pp. 171178, Article ID: IJCIET_07_02_014

Available online at
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=7&IType=2
Journal Impact Factor (2016): 9.7820 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
IAEME Publication

STUDYING THE EFFECT OF CAR

TECHNOLOGY ON CO EMISSIONS AND
BENEFITS OF UPDATING VEHICLE FLEET
USING FIELD TESTS
Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan
Civil Engineering Department,
Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Banha University,
Cairo, Egypt
ABSTRACT
This research compares CO emissions of old and new technology vehicles
using field test. Benefits of replacement old passenger cars with new ones are
estimated. Two representative cars are considered in field tests. Three factors
are considered in the comparison; speed, Revolution per minutes (RPM), and
relative humidity. Using mobile vehicle emission detector, more than 1000
readings are taken for each vehicle. Analysis proves that CO emissions from
old technology vehicles are much more than that from new ones. Differences
range between 1.5 to 20 times with an average value of 3 between both
vehicles. Analysis also proves that old passenger cars are responsible for
81.9% of the total CO emitted from passenger cars. Research concludes that
replacement of old passenger cars will save 60% of the total passenger CO
emission in Egypt. It is recommended to replace cars with model 1990 or
before.
Key words: Passenger Cars, CO Emissions, Field Test, Car Technology
Cite this Article: Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan, Studying the effect of car
technology on CO emissions and benefits of updating vehicle fleet using field
tests, International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 7(2), 2016,
pp. 171178.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=7&IType=2

1. INTRODUCTION
Emissions from motor vehicles are the most significant source of air pollution in
many urban areas. Knowledge about the amount of air pollution that the vehicle fleet
is emitting into the air has become an important question for concerned authorities.
They are responsible for reducing these emissions.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

171

editor@iaeme.com

Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan
Vehicle model is a primary factor that determines the amount discharged
emissions. It usually defines the quality of the engine and the type of emission control
technology that is installed in it. Therefore, it is important to know the relationship
between emission control technology installed in a vehicle and the amount of
discharged pollutant from it. Benefits from the progressive replacement of
uncontrolled gasoline cars with new ones equipped with three way catalysts should be
studied and calculated very well. This will help setting replacement strategy for aged
vehicles by new ones.
Vehicle models structure is particularly relevant in developing countries of the
world. A significant portion of the vehicle fleet consists of old aged and often poorly
maintained vehicles (T. Zachariadis, et al, 2001). In Egypt, the fleet of vehicles is
unbalanced and has a considerable amount of old aged vehicles. The percentage of
registered vehicles with model before 1990 is more than 56% (Env Project, 2008).
This has an adverse effect on the quality of air.
Therefore, the scope of this paper is to compare between new and old emission
control technologies in vehicle fleet on the quality of air in Egypt through field tests.
In addition, benefits of replacing old aged vehicles by new ones will be estimated in
Egypt. The primary emission type that was considered in this paper is the carbon
monoxide (CO). Therefore, this research aims to improve vehicle fleet technologies,
and mitigate the environmental impact of inefficient vehicles in pursuit of a more
sustainable transport sector
This research is limited to Light Duty Vehicles (LDV) in Egyptian fleet. Two
representative vehicles were considered in the field test; first, Peugeot 504 model
1979 as a representative car for old vehicles technology. This car is the most common
car in old vehicle fleet in Egypt. The second representative car is the Daewoo Lanus
2000 as a representative of new vehicles technology in Egyptian fleet. This car in turn
is a very famous car within new technology cars in Egypt.
This research composed of six sections in addition to the introduction section. In
section two, a review of all available literatures that are related to the research subject
is done. Section three explains data collection program for field survey. Section four
introduces data analysis for the collected data. Section five presents estimation of the
total passenger cars CO emission in the current situation. In section six, an assessment
of benefits of replacement of old technology passenger cars with new ones is
introduced. The last section is section seven which was devoted to introduce
conclusions and recommendations.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
F bluett et al, (2008) stated that emissions of all pollutants increase with increasing
age of petrol vehicles. Emissions of NO do not appear to vary significantly with the
age of diesel vehicles. Anna Alberini, et al, (1994) stated that old vehicles often do
not have effective emission control equipment; even it has a system for emission
control, it sometimes no longer functions properly. Thus they tend to emit pollutants
at much higher level, on average, than newer vehicles. They also stated that a
potentially effective way to reduce hydrocarbon, Carbon monoxides, and nitrogen
oxides emissions in urban areas is to take older, highly polluting cars off the road.
Older or larger vehicles emit more hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and oxides of
nitrogen per mile. Thus, alternative policies can approximate the effects of emissions
taxes by explicitly or implicitly taxing miles, taxing engine size, or subsidizing
vehicle newness. (Sarah E. West, 2002)

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

172

editor@iaeme.com

Studying the effect of car technology on CO emissions and benefits of updating vehicle fleet
using field tests

Stefano Caserini, et al, (2008), stated that both diesel and gasoline cars run half
the annual distance when they have reached an average age of approximately 8 years.
Vehicles of 20 years of age only run about 10% of the annual distance they used to
run when they are new. The impact of the dropping mileage with age is significant in
assessing the environmental impacts of transport and the potential impact of
environmental policies.
Nicholas Lutse, (2010), stated that the types and magnitude of technology shifts
that will be required for the pending greenhouse gases (GHG) mitigation problems
will require substantial transformations in old vehicles, fuels, and infrastructure

3. DATA COLLECTION
Data collection is executed using mobile vehicle emission detector that has been fixed
on the car emission source. Two test cars are considered; the first one is Daewoo
Lanus Model 2000 as a representative car for cars equipped with new technologies
emission control. The second car is Peugeot 504 model 1979 as a representative for
cars equipped with old technologies emission control. Emissions are measured while
the car is running on two roads; Salah Salem road and Auto strad road. Cars are
driven with the average road speed. The car speed ranges between 0 and 80 km per
hour. More than 1000 readings are taken between Carbon monoxide emission and
factors affecting it for each vehicle. Three factors are considered in this study; car
revolution per minutes (RPM), car speed, and the ambient relative humidity (RH).
The above data has been transferred from the device format into Excel sheet format
for analysis.

4. DATA ANALYSIS
In what follows, analysis is focused to study differences in emission between old
emission control vehicles and new ones for each factor; relative humidity (RH), RPM,
and vehicle speed.

4.1. Influence of RH variation on passenger car CO emission

In this section the relationship between CO emission and the ambient RH is studied.
Figure (1) shows the plot of CO emission verses RH for both cars. It is clear that CO
emission for Peugeot car is too much more than that of Daewoo car CO emission for
all RH values. The maximum difference between Peugeot and Daewoo CO emission
appears at RH 20. At this value Peugeot CO emission is almost as 20 times as
Daewoo car emission. On average CO emission for Peugeot old technology car is
about 3.0 times as Daewoo Lanus new technology car for all values of RH.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

173

editor@iaeme.com

Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan

Comparison between Peugeot and Daewoo in

term of RH verses CO emissions
CO (mg/s)

250
200
150
100
50
0

19

20

21

22

Peugeot

201.14025

235.7619409

221.3726965

212.2495

Daewoo

127.4355

11.72283333

36.81883333

156.7174059

Figure 1 Comparison between Peugeot and Daewoo in term of RH verses CO emission

4.2. Influence of RPM variation on passenger car CO emission

Figure (2) explains the relationship between RPM and CO emissions for both Daewoo
Lanus car and Peugeot Car. It is clear that Peugeot CO emission is much more than
Daewoo emissions for all values of RPM. Peugeot CO emission is as 1.5 to 20 times
as Daewoo Lanus emissions according to RPM value. The average CO emission for
Peugeot car is as 3 times as Daewoo Lanus car for all values of RPM.

CO (mg/s)

Comparison between Peugeot and Daewoo in term of RPM

verses CO emission
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

RPM

Figure 2 Comparison between Peugeot and Daewoo in term of RPM to CO emissions

4.3. Influence of speed variation on passenger car CO emission

Figure (3) shows the relationship between speed and CO emissions for both Peugeot
and Daewoo Lanus cars. It is clear from the figure that Peugeot emissions are more
than Daewoo Lanus CO emissions for all values of speeds. The average emission rate
for all speeds for Peugeot car is 253 mg / s while the average emission rate for all
speeds for Daewoo Lanus is 71.2 mg/s. It is clear that the average CO emission for

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

174

editor@iaeme.com

Peugeot
Daewoo

Studying the effect of car technology on CO emissions and benefits of updating vehicle fleet
using field tests

Peugeot car is about 3.5 times as the CO emission for Daewoo Lanus cars for all
value of speeds
Comparison between Peugeot and Daewoo in term of speed verses CO
emission

Co (mg/s)

500
400
300
200

Peugeot

100

Daewoo

speed (km / Hour)

Figure 3 Comparison between Peugeot and Daewoo in term of Speed to CO emissions

5. ESTIMATION OF THE TOTAL CO EMISSIONS IN THE

CURRENT SITUATION
The total number of registered vehicles at 2013 in Egypt is 6.86 million. Out of this
number, there are 3.54 million passenger cars (American Chamber of commerce,
2014). Passenger cars is divided into 3.23 million private cars and 0.317 million taxis
(CAPMAS, 2015). This number of private and taxi cars is divided into old and new
technology emission control. Table (1) shows the distribution of the current fleet of
light duty passenger cars between old and new emission control vehicles.
Table 1 Distribution of Private and taxi cars between old and new technology emission
control
Private cars
Taxis

New technology
1421865
139591

Old technology
1809647
177661

Total
3231512
317252

It is worth mentioning that there is a part of old technology vehicles that has been
transformed into gas. However, this part is small and negligible especially in
estimating fleet emission.
Having applied the average CO emission rate estimated in section 4 for both old
and new emission control, the total CO emission for light duty passenger car in the
current situation (2013 count) are estimated. Table (2) shows the total emitted CO due
to passenger light duty cars for working one hour.
Table 2 Total emitted CO in the current situation for one hour.

Private cars
Taxis
Total

New technology
Ton per hour Percentage
364.5
16.5
35.8
1.6
400.3
18.1

Old technology
Ton per hour Percentage
1648.2
74.6
161.8
7.3
1810
81.9

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

175

Total
Ton per hour Percentage
2012.7
91.1
197.6
8.9
2210.3
100

editor@iaeme.com

Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan
It is clear from table (2) that the total CO emission from light duty passenger cars
is 2210.3 ton per hour. Old emission control technology vehicles emit 1810 ton per
hour which represents 81.9% of the total CO emission from passenger cars.
To estimate the total emitted carbon monoxide from passenger light duty cars per
day, the average number of working hours for private cars is estimated by 6 hours per
day and the average number of working hours for taxis by 13 hours per day. Table (3)
shows the total CO emissions from light duty passenger cars per day.
Table 3 Total emitted CO in the current situation for one day

Private cars
Taxis
Total

New technology
Ton per day
Percentage
2187
14.9
465.4
3.2
2652.4
18.1

Old technology
Ton per day
Percentage
9889.2
67.5
2103.4
14.4
11992.6
81.9

Total
Ton per day Percentage
12076.2
82.4
2568.8
17.6
14645
100

It is clear from table (3) that the total CO emission from light duty passenger cars
is 14645 ton per day. Old emission control technology vehicles emit 11992.6 ton per
day which represents 81.9% of the total CO emission from light duty passenger cars
per day. Taxis emit 17.6% of the total passenger car CO emission per day. This means
that private cars have the major source of passenger car CO emission.

6. BENEFITS OF REPLACEMENT OLD PASSENGER CARS

WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY ONES IN TERM OF CO EMISSION
Table (4) shows the total estimated passenger car CO emissions in case of
replacement of cars with model 1990 or before with new technology vehicles. It is
clear from this table that the total passenger car CO emission will be reduced to
6026.9 ton per day in case of replacement of cars with model 1990 or before with new
technology vehicles. This amount is about 40% of the total passenger car CO
emissions in the current situations. This means that replacement of passenger cars
with model 1990 or before with new ones will save 60% of the total passenger CO
emissions.
Table 4 Passenger car CO emissions in case of replacement old cars with new technology
cars
CO emission
(Ton/day)
4969.8
1057.1
6026.9

New technology
Private cars
Taxis
Total

3231512
317252
3548764

Percentage
82.5
17.5
100

7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Reference to the previous analysis, the following may be concluded

Passenger car CO emissions for old technology cars are too much more than that of
new technology cars for all RH values. Differences of Passenger car CO emission
range between 1.4 to 20.2 times for all values of RH. The average passenger CO
emission value of old cars is 3 times that of new cars.
Old technology passenger car CO emission is much more than new technology cars
emissions for all values of RPM. Old technology cars CO emission is as 1.5 to 20

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

176

editor@iaeme.com

Studying the effect of car technology on CO emissions and benefits of updating vehicle fleet
using field tests

times as new technology cars emissions according to RPM value with the same
average value that for RH.
Old technology cars CO emissions are much more than new technology cars CO
emissions for all values of speeds. The average CO emissions for old technology
passenger cars is about 3.5 times as the CO emission for new technology cars for all
value of speeds
The average CO emission rate for all speeds for old technology cars is 253 mg / s
while the average CO emission rate for all speeds for new technology cars is 71.2
mg/s.
Old emission control technology vehicles emit 11992.6 ton per day which represents
81.9% of the total CO emission from light duty passenger cars per day
Taxis emit 17.6% of the total passenger car CO emission per day. That is means that
private cars are the major source of passenger car CO emission.
Replacement of passenger cars with model 1990 or before with new ones will save
60% of the total passenger CO emissions in Egypt.

Reference to the previous conclusion, it is recommended to do the following:

This study should be extended to include all types of vehicles not only light duty
passenger cars.
The study should also be extended to include all emission types not only CO
emissions.
The study should also be extended to include a comparison between old and new
technology vehicles in term of fuel consumption.
Author recommends designing a very quick program for replacement old technology
passenger cars with new one in a short period to save CO emissions.

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]

[4]

[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]

[9]

F Bluett, Katie Dey, Gavin Fisher, 2008, Assessing Vehicle Air Pollution
Emissions.
A Client Report: CHC2008-001, Commonwealth of Australia.
Stefano Caserini , Cinzia Pastorello , Pietro Gaifami , Leonidas Ntziachristos,
2013, Impact of the dropping activity with vehicle age on air pollutant emissions,
Atmospheric Pollution Research 4 (2013) 282-289
T. Zachariadis, L. Ntziachristos, Z. Samaras, 2001, The effect of age and
technological change on motor vehicle emissions, Transportation research part D
6 (2001) 221-227
Anna Alberini, David Edelstein, and Virginia D. McConnell, 1994, Will the
Retirement of Old Cars Improve Air Quality?, Resources No. 115, Spring 1994.
Env Project, 2008, Investment chances in environmental sector in Egypt
http://www.eeaa.gov.eg/portals/0/eeaaReports/achivements2008/env-project.pdf.
Sarah E. West, 2002, Distributional effects of alternative vehicle pollution control
policies, Journal of Public Economics 88 (2004) 735 757
Nicholas Lutse, 2010, Assessment of the cost effectiveness of vehicle efficiency
and alternative fuel technologies for greenhouse gas emission reduction,
Transportation Research Board, No 10-1011

Ylber Shabani, Shaqir Elezaj, Naser Lajqi and Shpetim Lajqi, Application
of Diagnostic Methods For The Rear Drive Axle of The Passenger Cars,
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 4(6), 2013,
pp. 214222.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

177

editor@iaeme.com

Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan
[10]

Ibrahim M. I. Ramadan and Naglaa Kamal Rashwan, Calibration of

Vehicle Emissions-Speed Relationships For The Greater Cairo Roads,
International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 7(1), 2015,
pp. 7482.

[11]
[12]

American Chamber of commerce, 2014, http://www.amcham.org.eg

CAPMAS, 2015, www.capmas.gov.eg

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/index.asp

178

editor@iaeme.com