The Impact of Gasoline Fuel Composition on Air Quality

In recent years, particulate matter (PM) emissions from the gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine, are of significant concern due to their associated health effects as well as for climate impacts. Thus, in this thesis, the effect of gasoline fuel composition on GDI engine PM emissions is investigated. The detailed composition of five regular grade (anti knock index, or AKI, 87) and two premium grade (AKI91) fuels currently used in Ontario was studied. In addition, the impact of fuel seasonal changes on gas-phase emissions (i.e. benzene and toluene), and particle-phase emissions, i.e. black carbon (BC), elemental carbon (EC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and particle number (PN) were also determined using a laboratory GDI engine. The observations showed that all summer AKI87 fuels contained higher aromatics and lower paraffins compared to the winter AKI87 grade which led to higher BC, EC, PN, benzene, and toluene emissions.M.A.S