Cover single 127 International Peer Reviewed Journal Contribution of Smoke-Belching Vehicles to the Green House Gases Concentration in the City of Dipolog, Philippines BERNARD G. GILAGA ORCID No. 0000-0003-1529-215X nard_3373@yahoo.com.ph ROWELL B. PALLEGA Jose Rizal Memorial State Univerity Philippines Abstract - Among 212 nations in the world, the Philippines is ranked 48th in terms of carbon emission in the transportation sector. The study sought to determine and estimate the amount of gaseous pollutants emitted by the vehicles in Dipolog City in relation to the overall gaseous pollutants of the Philippines. Results revealed an annual gaseous pollutant contribution of 1,072929.597%V for carbon monoxide and 501,282,073.1 ppm for hydrocarbon emission which, together, roughly explain 6% of the country’s overall GHG (Green house gases) output per year. Considering that there are 122 cities in the Philippines, the 6% GHG contribution of Dipolog City is considered well beyond the normal threshold. The study also identified some of the factors leading to this inordinate amount of GHG output of the city, such as, but not limited to: (a) strict implementation of the standards for vehicle emission levels prior to renewal of registration, and (b) strict monitoring and implementation of the anti-smoke belching law or the Clean Air Act (RA 8749). Vol. 10 · October 2012 Print ISSN 2012-3981 • Online ISSN 2244-0445 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7719/jpair.v10i1.185 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research is produced by PAIR, an ISO 9001:2008 QMS certified by AJA Registrars, Inc. 128 JPAIR: Multidisciplinary Research Keywords - Ecology, emission, hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, RA 8749, greenhouse gases, psychology, Philippines INTRODUCTION On the verge of escalating environmental crises brought by the GHG, countries worldwide through international agreements such as, the UN Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, agreed to reduce GHG emissions all over the world. The Philippines is one of the countries which believes that all countries can, and must, cooperate to address climate change through mitigation by adapting these agreements. In response to the call to mitigate the effects of climate change, RA 8749, known as the Philippine Air Act was passed in 1999. The law requires emission testing for all cars registered annually. The law aimed to ensure substantial improvement in air quality for the health safety and welfare of the public and pursue a policy of balancing development and environmental protection. It also sets a maximum limits for all major pollutants found in auto exhausts as follows: For light duty vehicles, the CO emission is 2.72 g/km, 0.97g/km for HC & NO and o.14 g/km for PM for compression-ignition engines only. For heavy duty vehicles the exhaust emission limit are 4.5 g/k/Wh for CO, 1.1 g/k/Wh for HC, for NOx is 8 g/k/Wh and .36 g/k/Wh for PM is allowed. And in the case of 85 kW or less engines, the limit value for particular emissions is increased by multiplying the quoted limit by a coefficient of 1.7. (RA 8749, 1999). The law further provides that the fuel evaporated emission for spark-ignition engines shall not exceed 2.0 gm hydrocarbons per test and it shall not allow any emission of gases from crankcase ventilation system into the atmosphere. Dipolog City is a growing city in the south with a population of 131,016, growing at a rate of 2.4% per annum. Vehicular traffic is becoming congested due to the increasing numbers of motor vehicles attendant to the needs of a fast growing urban city. Consequently, the city’s air quality over the years had been observed to deteriorate. There is now an urgent need to ascertain just how much the city’s vehicular traffic has contributed to air pollution and, subsequently ascertain compliance to the provisions of RA 8749. 129 International Peer Reviewed Journal OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY This study aims to determine the average amount of gaseous pollutants emitted by the transportation sector in Dipolog City which can guide policymakers and environmentalists in their efforts to minimize emission of hazardous gases from motor vehicles. METHODOLOGY The study used the descriptive method of research. Second information such as volume of traffic in the three entry points in Dipolog City and types of motor vehicle were gathered from the department of Public Works and Highways while emission test results were obtained from the Land Transportation Office. Date gathered were summarized as to the average volume of motor vehicles per day and motor vehicles were categorized according to utilization and fuel used. Gasoline emission test results only include hydrocarbons (HC) in ppm and carbon monoxide (CO) in percent by volume (%/v) while for diesel emission test was in terms of opacity. Opacity is the degree to which smoke blocks light. It is expressed as the absorption coefficient “k” (1/k). Average amount of HC, CO and opacity per vehicle type was calculated and used to estimate the average emission per day and per year. Motor Vehicles were classified as follows; motor tricycles (motorcycles and tricycles); passenger Car (multicab and other light public motor vehicles weighing › 1500kg.); passenger utility (public motor vehicles with the average weight ‹1500kg.), goods utility vehicles (those vehicles that transport goods); small bus, large bus; rigid trucks 2 axles; rigid trucks 3+axles; truck semi-trailer 3 & 4 axles; truck semi trailers 5+ axels; and truck trailers 4 axels. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Traffic Volume. As revealed in Table 1, motor-tricycles have the largest volume (1323.55 +144.94 motor-tricycles per day), followed by the passenger car (660.12+33.41passenger car/day) and public utility (254.86+30.77 public utility/day). Motor-tricycles, passenger cars, passenger utility and goods utility are known to use gasoline, 130 JPAIR: Multidisciplinary Research although there were also passenger cars, passenger utility and goods utility which used diesel. Table 1. Daily average number of motor vehicles running around Dipolog City Types of Motor vehicle Daily Average of Motor Vehicle SD Motor-Tricycle 1323.547619 144.9392 Passenger Car 660.1190476 33.40793 Passenger Utility 254.8571429 30.76997 Goods Utility 194.9761905 23.2282 Small Bus 54.14285714 3.641871 Large Bus 33.07142857 2.443542 Rigid Trucks 2 axles 173.1428571 23.38792 Rigid Trucks 3+ axles 34.64285714 11.53835 Truck Semi-Trailer 3&4 axles 2.857142857 1`.064706 Truck Semi-Trailer 5+ axles 0.119047619 0.125988 Truck Trailers 4 axles 0 0 Truck Trailers 5+ axles 0.023809524 0.062994 Total 2731.5 242.7633 Greenhouse Gases Emission of Gasoline and Diesel Powered Vehicles. Based on the emission test results (Table 2), the motor-tricycle (n= 45) which is a gasoline fueled vehicle has the highest hydrocarbon emission, HC (844+707.61) and carbon monoxide (1.33+0.796). This is followed by passenger car (HC=262+139.5; CO=0.941+0.726), passenger utility car (HC =167.33+120.12, CO =0.391+0.484) and good utility car (HC=209.2+140.25 CO =0.656+0.688). For the diesel powered vehicles, opacity was the only parameter available. It refers to the degree to which smoke blocks light. It is expressed as the absorption coefficient “k” (1/m). Nowadays, opacity is the basis for measuring the amount of smoke coming from a diesel- powered vehicle. It should be noted that an engine that smokes is emitting numerous toxic compounds, particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen and sulfur that can adversely affect public health and the environment. As shown in Table 2, a passenger car has an opacity coefficient, 1.201+0.462 k. 131 International Peer Reviewed Journal Table 2. Average amount of green house gases emitted per vehicle type Motor Vehicle Type HC CO Opacity (ppm) % k A. Gasoline Motor-Tricycle 844+707.61 1.33+0.796 - Passenger car (n=15) 262+139.5 0.941+0.726 - Passenger Utility 167.33+120.12 0.391+0.484 - Goods Utility 209.2+140.25 0.656+0.688 - B.Diesel Passenger car - - 1.201+0.462 Passenger Utility - - 0.68+0.376 Goods Utility - - 1.093+0.368 Small Bus - - - Large Bus - - - Rigid Trucks 2 axles - - 1.114+0.47 Rigid Trucks 3+ axles - - 0.812+0.486 Using the emission data obtained, the daily average amount of hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases emitted per vehicle type were calculated. As shown in table 3, the motor-tricycle consistently has the greatest amount of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emission per day. With regard to the opacity measure, all diesel vehicles had values below the standard k = 2.5. Table 3 also presents the daily average and annual amount of CO and HC emitted by the motor vehicle in Dipolog City. The type of motor vehicle that contributes more CO and HC is the Motor-Tricycle with the daily average gas contribution of 1760.318333 %V and 1117074.19ppm, followed by the Public Cars and Public Utility. The total daily amount of CO of the gasoline fueled vehicles in Dipolog City is 2939.533143% and the total HC is 1373375.543 ppm. 132 JPAIR: Multidisciplinary Research Table 3. Average annual amount of CO and HC emitted by the motor vehicles Types of Motor Vehicle Aver- age of CO Aver- age of HC Aver- age Daily Vehicle Total Daily Amount of CO Total Daily Amount of HC Estimated Total Annual Amount of CO Estimated Total Annual Amount of HC MT 1.33 844 1323.55 1.76X1010 1117074.19 6.42X1012 407732079.5 PC 1.201 262 660.12 1.24X1010 172951.1905 4.54X1012 63127184.52 PU 0.68 167 254.86 5.8X109 42561.14286 1.88X1012 15534817.14 GU 1.093 209.2 194.98 8.68X109 40789.01905 3.17X1012 14887991.95 TOTAL 4.4X1010 1373375.543 1.60X1013 501282073.1 The preponderance of motorized tricycles in the city of Dipolog contributes largely to the GHG noted. However, for a city of this size, motorized tricycles should have been limited to small arterial roads with limited distance and should be banned from plying along main city roads (RA 8749). A reduction in the number of motorized tricycles in the City of Dipolog can contribute significantly to a reduced GHG emission for the city 1.76/4.6 =40% reduction. A comparison with the estimated value of carbon monoxide contributed or emitted by the motor vehicle in Dipolog City (1.60x1013 ppb per year) showed that it is greater than the monthly tropospheric carbon monoxide reading by the NASA Terra Satellite (April 2010). It should be noted that the estimate was based on the actual results of car emission test, hence the greater values. Moreover, CO when released to the atmosphere is eventually oxidized to carbon dioxide through natural processes and concentration is both short-lived in the atmosphere and spatially variable which explain the great difference between the annual CO in concentration (actual emission test result) and tropospheric CO concentration. However, this estimate can be grossly understated. Older vehicles tend to be less efficient than the newer ones. We conjecture that this could be one reason for the inordinate amount of gaseous pollutants noted in the city. However, when we tested for statistical significance of the difference between the CO emissions of older and newer vehicles we found a minimal mean difference of 133 International Peer Reviewed Journal 0.8026 resulting in a t-value of t=0.716 (p>.05). What this implies is that as per records, no statistical evidence exists to show that older vehicles are less efficient than newer ones. However, this is certainly contrary to scientific results, and so, we deduce that this is probably due to a serious under reporting of the carbon emissions for older vehicles (either intentionally or nonintentionally). The City of Dipolog should be contributing less than 1% of the country’s GHG output annually, but our results indicated that it is in fact contributing 600 times more (6%). Of course, Metro Manila contributes 20% GHG but this can be easily explained by the shown volume of traffic in this area. In Dipolog we established that the CO emissions are mainly attributed to the motorized tricycles plying the city roads. Policy Implications Analysis of the fuel-burning emissions of vehicles in the City of Dipolog show that, under grossly understated data, the city contributes at least 6% of the country’s total emission. This can be considered high (and even higher if data were correctly stated by the testing centers). These results have far-reaching implications on the implementation of RA 8749 or the Clean Air Act of 1997: The mechanism of implementation of RA 8749, particularly at the Emission Testing Centers to be reviewed and zealously guarded. In particular there are implications to the accreditation process adopted by the LTO for these testing centers. Since it has been established that older vehicles tend to be quite inefficient in terms of complete combustion, there is a need to define which vehicles should be allowed to register in the Philippines in mores advanced countries, for instance, vehicles that are more than five (5) years old are automatically phased out (Japan, Land Transport Ministry, 2005). Importation policies for vehicle surpluses should similarly be reviewed in particular, tax penalties for buying surplus vehicles can be set higher in order to discourage local consumers from patronizing the products. 134 JPAIR: Multidisciplinary Research CONCLUSION The City of Dipolog, Philippines contributes a significant portion to the country’s annual CO emission, and inordinately so (>6%). Such a huge annual CO emission can be attributed to the main factors that obtain in the city: (a.) presence of fuel inefficient motorized tricycles which constitute the bulk of public transport in the city, and (b.) huge number of older vehicle types which are also inefficient in burning fuel. Serious under reporting of the CO emissions of older vehicle types lead to the conclusion that the implementation of RA 8749 or the Clean Air Act leaves much to be desired in the city. LITERATURE CITED Department of Transportation and Communication Land Transportation Office. Dipolog District Office. Upper Turno, Dipolog City Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2006. Volume 2 Energy. National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Japan Land Transport Ministry (2005) Katherine, D. 2007. Organic & Biochem. 5th Ed. Mc. Graw Hill.N. Y. Kuzma, Jan W & Bohnenblust S. 2003 Basic Statistics for the Health Science 5th ed. MC Graw-Phil Int’l Ed. Singapore Morris H., et. al. 2005 General Organic & Biochemistry 8th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Neilk Weaver 2002 Gasoline Toxicology. Implications for Human Health. The American Petroleum Institute. Washington, DC. Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 and Republic Act 8749