Transportation Air Quality Laboratory
Vehicle Emissions. The Transportation Air Quality (TAQ) Laboratory (opened May 2009) houses vehicle emissions and performance monitoring equipment including full-scale and on-board mini-dilution tunnels for sampling engine and vehicle exhaust from diesel and gasoline engines and vehicles; state-of-the-art real-time gas and particle sampling instrumentation, including instruments capable of counting and sizing ultrafine particle numbers; an Armfield CM-12 diesel engine test bed with exhaust extraction system; and three light-duty gasoline vehicles dedicated to tailpipe emissions research.
Numerous on-board vehicle monitoring devices comprise the Total On-Board Tailpipe Emissions Measurement System (TOTEMS) that is used in interdisciplinary research on exhaust emissions. TOTEMS is unique in its high-resolution (1 Hz) measurement of particle number distributions and mobile source air toxics (MSATs) as a function of vehicle operating characteristics while the test vehicles are driving Vermont’s roads. More information on TOTEMS can be found here.
Biodiesel Research. The TAQLab is also the center for laboratory studies on biodiesel fuel properties, diesel engine performance and emissions are carried out in collaboration with mechanical engineering faculty and students.
Lab Equipment:
- 2010 Toyota Camry hybrid
- 2010 Toyota Camry conventional
- 1999 Toyota Sienna minivan
- 2007 Toyota Prius PHEV (Hymotion conversion to plug-in)
- Armfield CM12 Light-duty Diesel Engine Test-bed
SUN RAM 3000 Chassis Dynamometer
- Clean Aire Technology exhaust extraction system
- Custom diesel exhaust particulate dilution system
- Total On-Board Tailpipe Exhaust Measurement System (TOTEMS) comprised of the following components:
- MKS 2030-HS High speed Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer: real-time gas species, including mobile source air toxics (MSATs)
- TSI Engine Exhaust Particle Size Spectrometer: real-time particle distribution
- TSI Ultrafine Condensation Particle Counter (UCPC): total particle number
- Crossbow 2-and 3-axis accelerometers: vehicle acceleration
- SENSR GP2x and GP1 accelerometers: real-time road grade
- 3 Scantools (vehicle-specific) for on-board diagnostics (OBD-II)
- Custom pitot tube assembly:real-time exhaust flow measurement
- Matter Engineering MD-192E/ASET-15 Rotating disk minidiluter: particle dilution
- Assorted Thermocouples & Pressure Sensors
- HOBOware Ambient Temperature and Relative Humidity loggers
- Digital video equipment
- Lifeline Battery System and Automatic Transfer Switch
- On-Board PC and Laptop for data-logging
- Other Instrumentation: TSI Electrical Aerosol Detector: particle concentration TSI Scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS): particle number distribution Dekati Electrical low-pressure impactor:measures real-time particle size) 12 in-vehicle Global Positioning System receivers (Geostats, Garmin and Trimble)