Black Carbon Belchers?
Pollution Monitoring: Cars may produce more climate-warming particles than previously thought
Tiny particles known as black carbon can pack a heavy punch when it comes to climate change, by trapping heat in the atmosphere and by alighting atop, and melting, Arctic ice. With an eye toward controlling these emissions, researchers have tracked black carbon production from fossil fuel combustion in gasoline-burning cars and diesel-burning trucks. Once thought to be minor players, gasoline-burning engines could put out twice as much black carbon as was previously measured, according to new field methods (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es2033845).
Black carbon particles, which come from many combustion processes, have become a focus this month of an international agreement to control climate impacts from short-lived but powerful actors such as methane, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon (C&EN, Feb. 20, page 8). The new findings could lead to controls on gas-burning vehicles, long considered to produce less black carbon than diesel-burning trucks and cars.
