Comparison of Vehicular Emissions from BS-III and BS-VI Motorized Two-Wheelers

Abstract

To ensure better air quality, the Indian vehicular emission standard has been upgraded nation-wide from BS-III to BS-IV and BS-IV to BS-VI in 2017 and 2020, respectively. However, there is a lack of attention to real-world emissions from M2W given its importance in the Indian scenario because laboratory tests do not fully capture real-world driving behavior. It is important to evaluate if there was a significant reduction in emissions from motorcycles because of upgrading to better BS standards. In this regard, two motorbikes complying with BS-III and BS-VI specifications were evaluated. An on-board vehicular gas analyser and a GPS were used to collect emission and vehicle kinematics data on different road sections in Varanasi during both off-peak and peak hours to ensure most speed and acceleration patterns are captured. The difference between the driving condition of the real world and the Indian driving cycle (IDC) was captured. The percentage of idling time in real traffic is low as compared to that in IDC. BS-III produces more CO and HC and less CO2 and NOx as compared to BS-VI. The emission factor of BS-III motorbikes for pollutants CO and HC was 9.68 and 25.69 times that of BS-VI motorbikes. The emission factor of BS-VI motorbikes for CO2 and NOx was 3.57 and 2.22 times of BS-III motorbikes. The switching from BS-III to BS-VI motorcycles will reduce CO and HC emission by 89.7% and 96.55% while increasing CO2 and NOx emission by 179% and 53.8%, respectively. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.