This dissertation evaluates emissions from several potentially significant emission sources including marine vessels, harbor craft, heavy duty vehicles, commercial cooking and natural gas fired turbines. PM and air toxics released to the atmosphere negatively impact air quality and human health. This dissertation characterizes the effects of newer technology fuels, aftertreatment and engine technology on ocean going vessels (OGVs) and harbor craft. In-use gaseous and particulate matter emissions were measured in real-time at sea aboard a very large crude carrier (VLCC) to evaluate a low sulfur heavy fuel oil (HFO) (110 ppm) as a potential replacement for marine gas oil (MGO). Results show that both NOx and PM2.5 emissions were still ~4% and ~69% lower with MGO compared to low sulfur HFO. Further, the impact of a hydrotreated algae fuel was characterized from a marine diesel generator aboard a Stalwart class marine vessel. NOx emissions showed slight benefits while PM2.5 emissions were similar when switching from the ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD) to the hydrotreated algae diesel fuel blend (33% by volume). Finally, a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and diesel particulate filter (DPF) aftertreatment controls installed aboard a tugboat led to significant reductions of NOx (~92%) and PM2.5 (~96%) emissions.

This dissertation further characterizes the effectiveness of commercial cooking technologies on the physical and chemical nature of particle mass, particle number and gaseous toxics from commercial cooking operations.

Finally, this dissertation describes improved methodologies for characterizing PM emissions from natural gas fired turbines. Findings include that PM emissions from natural gas turbines are very low, with the effluent below national ambient air quality standards. The effects of varying dilution parameters such as dilution ratio, residence time, relative humidity and dilution temperature on particle mass from these sources were further characterized in this dissertation.