Outdoor smog-chamber experiments: reactivity of methanol exhaust

Abstract
The purpose of the report was to provide an experimental smog-chamber database especially designed to test photochemical kinetics mechanisms that would be used to assess the effects of methanol fuel use in automobiles. The mechanisms would be used in urban air-quality control models to investigate the advantages of large-scale use of methanol fuel in automobiles. The smog-chamber experiments were performed during three summer months. They have been added to the existing UNC database for photochemical mechanism validation and testing, bringing the total number of dual experiments in the database to over 400. Three different hydrocarbon mixtures were used: a 13-component mixture representing synthetic automobile exhaust; an 18-component mixture representing synthetic urban ambient hydrocarbons; and a 14-component mixture derived from the synthetic automobile exhaust by the addition of n-butane. Three different synthetic methanol-exhaust mixtures were used: 80% methanol/10% formaldehyde; and 100% methanol.