Airborne Ethanol on the Rise

Ethanol, now used commonly in U.S. transportation fuels, is turning up in urban air at more than six times the levels measured a decade ago, according to a new study led by scientists at the Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and NOAA. The research team found no discernible impact of increased ethanol on air quality.

Ethanol produced from corn and other crops has been promoted as a renewable transportation fuel and gasoline sold today in the United States contains, on average, nearly 10 percent ethanol, compared with about 1.3 percent in 2000. Ethanol is now the most prevalent compound in the gasoline sold in the United States.

“Increasing the ethanol in fuels is leaving a clear signature in the atmosphere,” said Joost de Gouw, an atmospheric chemist with CIRES and NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratories, and lead author of the new paper, published online in Geophysical Research Letters earlier this month.

De Gouw and his colleagues made measurements of urban air during four air quality research campaigns between 2002 and 2010. While many aspects of urban air composition were similar between the four studies, ethanol stuck out: It was six times higher in 2010, reflecting the increased use of fuel ethanol. Ethanol in the atmosphere is not easy to measure, and this study is the first to track its trends over time.

Ethanol is not considered an air toxic, but the Environmental Protection Agency does consider one of its byproducts, acetaldehyde, a hazardous air pollutant. And acetaldehyde can react in the atmosphere to form ground-level ozone, which is also regulated because of its health effects.

Previous research had suggested that the increased use of ethanol in fuel could increase acetaldehyde and ozone pollution. By contrast, de Gouw and colleagues found that acetaldehyde levels dropped in Los Angeles between 2002 and 2010, despite steady increases in ethanol use. Acetaldehyde can be formed from many different compounds in the atmosphere, de Gouw said, “and most of those compounds have gone down in the atmosphere over the last decade, because of cleaner vehicles.”

“This was a surprise,” de Gouw said. “When we looked at acetaldehyde, we expected to see an increase because ethanol had become ubiquitous. We found no evidence for this detrimental effect on air quality.”

To watch a video about this study click here [David to provide final link - please remove this text]

Joost de Gouw, CIRES, 303-497-3878, Joost.deGouw@noaa.gov
Karin Vergoth, CIRES, 303-497-5125, karin.vergoth@colorado.edu