National Renewable Energy Laboratory

New Fuels Technology Impacts

About the Project

The goal of the New Fuels Technology Impacts project is to study environmental science and health effects by identifying atmospheric impacts from mobile sources that may result from using conventional petroleum-based fuels and alternative transportation fuels. We study ambient air samples and exhaust emission data from vehicles using traditional and advanced fuels to determine the effects of pollutants on human health, air quality, and visibility. In particular, we conduct research on ozone and particulate matter (both primary, or directly emitted from mobile sources; and secondary, formed in the atmosphere from oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, and organic gases). Fuels examined for the New Fuels Technology Impacts project include gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, natural gas, methanol, and ethanol. We coordinate our research with automobile and engine manufacturers; the petroleum industry; the basic sciences community; federal, regional, and local environmental agencies; and the engine and fuel research community.

To accomplish this project, researchers:

• Identify major air quality problems affected by fuel-related sources.
• Examine emissions from heavy and light vehicles.
• Study the transport and fate of the pollutants and their precursors.
• Support DOE in its health effects studies of heavy and light vehicle exhaust.

Findings from this research will help enable technologies that are being developed by DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program to gain acceptance and be commercialized.