Quantifying aircraft emissions of Shanghai Pudong International Airport with aircraft ground operational data

The air traffic growth at Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) has attracted much concern over the potential impacts on local air quality and human health; however, the emission contributions due to aircraft activities, impact on air quality and health effects remain unclear. In this study, the ground operational data derived from the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) dataset are newly utilized to obtain the PVG-specific emission parameters of 10 distinct aircraft-engine combinations during the taxi-in and taxi-out phases of the landing and take-off (LTO) cycle. The resulting emission parameters, together with PVG-specific operational conditions, are applied to quantify the annual emissions in 2017 for main engines and auxiliary power units (APUs) at PVG, emission variations caused by mixing layer height, sensitivity of black carbon (BC) emissions to the estimation method and sensitivity of PM_2.5 emissions to the fuel sulfur content (FSC). The results show noticeable discrepancies between the corrected fuel flows and NO_x emission indices (EIs) and those certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The annual emissions of hydrocarbons (HC), CO, NO_x, NO, NO₂, HONO, HNO₃, NO_y, SO₂, SO₄^2-, BC, organic carbon (OC) and PM_2.5 with corrected emission parameters are 3.82 × 10⁵ kg, 4.35 × 10⁶ kg, 5.36 × 10⁶ kg, 4.40 × 10⁶ kg, 9.58 × 10⁵ kg, 1.03 × 10⁵ kg, 3.83 × 10³ kg, 5.47 × 10⁶ kg, 3.56 × 10⁵ kg, 1.31 × 10⁴ kg, 5.43 × 10⁴ kg, 4.73 × 10³ kg and 7.22 × 10⁴ kg, respectively, while the application of the maximum height of the mixing layer contributes to emission increases as high as 16.9% (NO_x). An alternative estimation of BC emissions leads to an increase of 50% compared with first-order approximation 3 (FOA3), while a reduction in PM_2.5 emissions can be expected by minimizing the FSC.